New disease threat to oak trees - volunteers sought

Woodland owners and managers are being invited to play a part in helping to monitor the health of Britain’s most iconic tree species.

Scientists from Aberystwyth University and Forest Research, in partnership with Sylva Foundation, are asking volunteers to get involved in an important new research project aiming to monitor the health of oak trees across the country.

As well as being culturally, historically and economically important, oak trees are of great environmental significance.  As one of the country’s most biodiverse trees, they support over 2,000 wildlife species.

However, native oak trees – keystone species in many woodlands — are fighting for survival against environmental change, disease, mildew, insect defoliation, honey fungus, and Acute Oak Decline. 

A new disease defined within the last twenty years, Acute Oak Decline is increasingly affecting mature native oak trees across England and Wales.

The disease is characterised by extensive bleeding or oozing of dark fluid from small lesions or splits in the bark of tree stems, D-shaped emergence holes left by the Agrilus biguttatus beetle, and a depleted canopy.

It causes rapid decline, and in most cases the affected tree dies within as little as 4-6 years.

The research team from Forest Research and Aberystwyth University is seeking help from woodland owners and managers to help them to understand where and how these factors are impacting oak health. 

Volunteers will be asked to assess five or more oak trees between June and August this year.

Dr Manfred Beckmann from the Department of Life Sciences at Aberystwyth University, said:

“Through this research, we are calling on woodland owners and managers to help us to monitor the health of Britain’s much-loved oak trees, which are at risk from several different and varied threats, particularly Acute Oak Decline.  Assessing each oak tree should take no more than 5 minutes, and the purpose-built app makes uploading assessments easy and straightforward.”

Celyn Bassett, a researcher in the Department of Life Sciences at Aberystwyth University, added:

“We want to capture the current health of oak trees so we can make comparisons between affected and symptom free woodlands. We hope to understand the differences in environment, the underlying health of the trees and importantly the role of management in improving the situation.”

Nathan Brown who is an Environmental Modeller from Forest Research said:

“This project is the latest element in our programme of research funded by the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to investigate the causes, distribution and scale of Acute Oak Decline in the UK. This research is designed to help develop effective management and prevention strategies for the disease, map its distribution in the UK, and predict the risk of spread of the disease.”

Woodland owners and managers interested in volunteering are invited to create a free account on Forest Lab, which is part of the myForest platform run by Sylva Foundation, where full details about how to take part can be found.

Dr Gabriel Hemery, Chief Executive of Sylva Foundation, said:

“The Oak Health project is a great new addition to our range of activities for land managers in Forest Lab, allowing them to share important data about the resilience of their woodlands, and at the same time learning through innovative engagement with our partner’s leading environmental scientists.”

The project is funded by the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).