News

Use of interactive mapping to aid stakeholder engagement in the Strathard Initiative

A novel research project at Alice Holt forest has unearthed the UK's rarest earthworm. Current earthworm distribution records indicate that some UK species are rare or very rare. However, fieldwork conducted in November 2017 yielded three new records of the nationally very rare species Dendrobaena pygmaea, boosting the national records of this earthworm from six records to nine.

The plight of our most iconic native tree, the oak, is the subject of a new film released today.

Research into the lifecyle of oak boring beetle Agrilus bigattatus

Pioneering tree health partnership to continue thanks to funding boost

There is growing interest in working with natural processes (WWNP) to reduce flood risk. WWNP aims to protect, restore and emulate the natural functions of catchments, floodplains, rivers and the coast. It includes, for example, restoring peat moorlands, re-meandering rivers, targeting woodland planting and improving floodplain connectivity to help to reduce the flood risk to communities downstream.

In August, Dr Joan Webber spoke at a symposium held to celebrate the life and career of Johanna Westerdijk. Johanna led the team of female mycologists who discovered the cause of the first epidemic of Dutch Elm Disease a fungus called Ophiostoma ulmi and also revealed much of the biology of this damaging pathogen and pioneered the first breeding programme to produce disease resistant elms. Johanna was a truly remarkable woman not only for these achievements but also for her efforts to inspire and empower female mycologists in the early part of the 20th Century.

The project was named best community/volunteer initiative at the Horticulture Week awards at Woburn Abbey on 28th of June.

The world-leading role that UK research is playing in the fight against tree and plant pests was demonstrated to Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey recently during a visit to Forest Research in Edinburgh

In March 2017, Dr Joan Webber and Prof Clive Brasier took part in an expedition to north Vietnam as part of the EU Horizon 2020 POnTe project