Plant Health Heroes: “We all need to be vigilant”
Eve Over, Lead advisor on forest regulations for Natural Resources Wales and Warden of the Royal Forestry Society's woods at Leighton speaks to us about the work being done to monitor and manage the threats of pests and diseases across Wales.
Plant health and biosecurity may sound like the realm of scientists and policymakers. But in a conversation with Eve Over of Natural Resources Wales, she tells us that plant health should be an everyday part of being out and about in the woods, whether you’re a forester or a dog walker.
“We all need to be more aware of tree health,” Eve said, “because we all have a responsibility.”
Eve plays a vital role in caring for one of the Royal Forestry Society’s three woodlands, the Charles Ackers Redwood Grove and Naylor Pinetum at Leighton. Planted in 1857, it is one of the most famous and historically significant stands of trees in the UK. Eve has been Warden of the woods since 2021, and in collaboration with Forest Research, she’s helping keep these important trees safe from future threats.
An early warning system for disease
At Leighton, volunteers are helping with a monitoring project led by Forest Research in Wales. Leighton is one of dozens of locations across Wales where insect and spore traps have been deployed to monitor and gather data. It’s part of the Welsh Plant Health Surveillance Network.
The spore traps are managed by Racheal Lee from Forest Research and are helping detect any airborne spores that could signal emerging tree health risks.
Leighton is surrounded by neighbouring woodland with species like Douglas fir and ash, so understanding what’s moving through the landscape is important for building a picture of the health and potential threats to the woodland and the surrounding area.
The method is simple but highly effective. “We have some Vaseline-coated tiny little slides that spin around in the wind for two days,” Eve said. “Volunteers help set up “this small spinning machine and see what it collects.” The slides are then carefully labelled and sent off for analysis, helping to build evidence of what might be present in the air.
At Leighton, it’s so far so good. “No results are also good results,” Eve said, “It helps confirm that things are okay right now. It is a sort of early warning system.”
Coming together to protect trees
Pests and diseases can easily travel when we don’t stop to think about where plants come from and how disease spreads.
Eve stressed the importance of vigilance and education: “We need to be more vigilant and more aware, for Plant Health Week or any week really.”
You don’t need specialist knowledge to help protect our trees. It is hugely important that all of us stay vigilant.
- Notice what you’re seeing in woods, parks, gardens, and report concerns if something doesn’t look right.
- Think about provenance. Where you buy your trees and what you’re buying
- Use tools like Tree Alert to record signs of disease.
- Clean your boots when travelling to a new area or entering a new woodland.
Eve believes Plant Health needs communal effort, not just from experts but the general public and tree enthusiasts, too. “It’s not just me plodding around the redwoods. It’s everybody thinking about what we’re doing in the forestry sector, how we’re buying trees and what we’re buying.”
