April 2025
Research
Policy
- Read Australia CSIRO ’s excellent summary of their system to alert biosecurity authorities when observations of invasive pests and weeds in the environment are uploaded to the Atlas of Living Australia Why citizen scientists are key in the fight against invasive species – CSIRO…. and yes, tree pests and diseases are invasive alien species
- New Zealand: New Zealand too have an app to report suspect sightings of potential quarantine pests Find-A-Pest
- Plant Health Test Project on iNaturalist I came across this on iNaturalist. It’s states “This is a bit of a test project to help explore how to capture potential sightings of quarantine pests with iNaturalist”
Surveillance and intelligence
- Hornbeam Decline (Cryphonectria carpinicola) has now been reported for the first time in France. In June 2021 and later in June 2024, C. carpinicola was detected in two forest stands located in north-eastern France (Bourgogne- Franche-Comté region). In both locations, the pathogen was found in drought stressed hornbeam stands, confirming it behaves rather as a weak pathogen and does not appear to be a primary pathogen. Both infested stands had 5 to 10% dead or severely declining (i.e. trees with more than 50% of dead branches) hornbeam trees. (Source: EPPO)
- April 2025 is Citizen Science Month. Check-out the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) website for further details, including the Sci-Starter project
- RHS are using a Citizen Science approach to record fungi at Wisley (using iNaturalist) and for various plant health surveys (using RHS webpages) including:
March 2025
Research
- Dr Erin Roger (CSIRO) has published a paper on the first 12 months of the Atlas of Living Australia’s Biosecurity Hub, which gives us a glimpse of the benefits of collaboration between the biosecurity – biodiversity communities
- The Bacterial Plant Diseases Programme, which is coming to an end, have published the outcomes of the programme
- Two THCSN members, Coventry University and CEH, are partners in a new EU Horizon-funded project OneSTOP which will trial a “garden sentinel network” for private gardens for invasive plants and invertebrates
Policy
- Defra has launched a new service Check plant health information and import rules – for people to find out the rules, and the pest or disease risks for importing plants, plant products or seeds to Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) for commercial use
- Scottish Government has published the Scottish Plant Health Strategy 2024-2029 which includes a commitment to “ engage with stakeholders to develop initiatives for surveillance and reporting, for example Observatree, Tree Alert and possible networks of amateur gardeners”
Surveillance and intelligence
- Tremap and Heathrow are partnering to tackle an ambitious task – to map the location of every remaining black poplar in the UK
- EPPO have published their latest newsletter on surveillance, monitoring, and control of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis)
- EPPO has issued an Alert for hornbeam decline (Cryphonectria carpinicola) which has recently been found for the first time in the UK, at five sites in south-east England where it is associated with dieback of mature hornbeam trees
