Supporting Plant Health Week
The Royal Forestry Society is delighted to support National Plant Health Week from 8-14 May. Managing plant health is vital to protecting our woodland for the future.
#CheckaSweetChestnut is a citizen science project being launched this week and running throughout the summer. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Defra, APHA and Forest Research are asking the public to help provide a national check-up on the health of our sweet chestnut trees.
Sweet chestnut trees (Castanea sativa) are under a growing threat from the oriental chestnut gall wasp (OCGW) and a fungus, chestnut blight. More on how to take part here.
Find out about the events and webinars being put on by many different organisations throughout the week here. Follow #planthealthweek and @plantchief on twitter.
Check out our information on tree pests and diseases:
As Ash dieback continues to devastate woodland across the country, the Royal Forestry Society (RFS) and the Forestry Commission are sharing the experiences of landowners and managers. See our case study reports: ‘Sharing Forestry Knowledge: Managing Ash Dieback’ and ‘Managing Ash Dieback Vol 1’.
Read this blog ‘Facing up to OPM’ by Victoria Jackson from the consultancy team at Maydencroft and find out where to get further information.
Find out ‘Five surprising things about Ips typographus’ in this blog by Anna Platoni, Advisory Entomologist at Forest Research.
Our Quarterly Journal of Forestry (QJF) carries regular articles on plant health research and management. Members can log in to search and read articles on past journals. Recent articles have included:
January 2021: ‘Understanding Acute Oak Decline’ by Katy Reed et al.
April 21: ‘Ashes to Ashes’: Natural Selection for Ash dieback resistance by James KM Brown and Elizabeth Orton.
January 2022: ‘Diversification for disease/pest resilience’, by Berglind Karlsdóttir et al.
April 2022: ‘Phytophera Ramorum – the story so far’, by Joan Webber.
April 2022: ‘Phytophera pluvialis – a new threat to forestry’, by Ana Pérez-Sierra et al.
January 2023: ‘A Decade of Ash Dieback: Where are we now?’, By Barnaby Wylder.
April 2023: ‘What Does it Take to Stop Bad Bacteria on Oak’, by Sandra Denman and Nathan Brown.
