10.30 – 13.00, Tuesday 2^nd July 2024 (FR Alice Holt & via Microsoft Teams)

Meeting chair: David Slawson (DS), Imperial College London

Local organiser: Lucy Turner (LT), Forest Research, Alice Holt

Decisions and actions

THCSN Business

Actions/matters arising from the July 2023 meeting

All items have either been completed or are covered on the agenda except:

Defra raised concerns about publicising meeting notes that attributed sensitive information or actions to individuals. As a consequence, the note of the February 2024 meeting was amended to remove such references. 

Decision 1: Going forward it was agreed that the agenda (minus personal phone numbers) and notes of the meeting would continue to be publicised as a means of reaching out to people interested in our work.  The notes should continue to be short, accurate but should not include named individuals.  Members should identify any information that needs to be communicated sensitively. The coordinator will keep details of persons responsible for actions, deadlines etc.

Communications: website usage, jiscmail, biogs, including research summaries, news items

Technical developments have enhanced the performance of the webpages.

Jiscmail continues to be the main means to communication within the THCSN.  Therefore, it is important that anyone interested in our work should sign up for the jiscmail group.

Action 1: Sign-in details will be circulated to members, who are encouraged to join the jiscmail group.

There was a wide-ranging discussion on the purpose of the THCSN and the objective of our communications.  A summary was given of the origin, operation and purpose of the THCSN.  A focus on communicating what’s going on and engaging people with activities in which they can get involved, such as MistleGO – a Mistletoe survey – was urged.

No progress had been made on inclusion of a regular news item on the website.  However, it was considered worthwhile to progress the concept.  Members will need to forward items to the coordinator to draft and post.

Action 2: A suite of actions were agreed: a review and if necessary amendment of our published terms of reference, commence a regular news item on the website, look at the operation of similar groups such as Action Oak and members to include a brief statement in their “biogs” of what they want from others.

Venues/dates for next meeting(s)

• February 2025 meeting will be MS Teams only
• July 2025 – Potential venues included: Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Ryton Organic Garden, Coventry and RHS Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire

Action 3: Coordinator to decide on dates for the February 2025 and discuss and agree a venue for the July 2025 meeting.

Priority Action Update

Tree Health Citizen Science Learning Pathway

Despite a suspicion that little use has been made of the ‘Learning Pathway’, it was nonetheless considered a useful tool worthy of continuation.  Again, success will depend on members volunteering new materials, activities etc. to keep the pathway current and engaging.

Action 4: Coordinator to be provided with data on traffic to the Pathway’s webpage; and Coordinator with assistance to review and update the ‘Pathway’.

Enhance the tree health surveillance network

An update was given on Observatree associates, including the UK Garden Sentinel Network (UK GSN) – a collaboration between Observatree, PlantNetwork and Botanic Gardens Conservation International.  The UK GSN launched a pilot survey in Plant Health Week for participating gardens to survey for three pests: Great Spruce Bark Beetle, Elm zig-zag sawfly and European Mountain Ash Ringspot Associated Virus.  Connections are being made with the Garden Sentinel scheme in Wales, which are monitored by officials.

A new collaboration is developing between different groups involved in tree health surveillance, in particular Observatree volunteers and Tree Health Champions in various official agencies.  The initiative started in Highland, Scotland between Observatree and Tree Health Champions in Forestry and Land Scotland.  This was followed by a GB-wide webinar on 24 June with a follow up next steps meeting on 12 July -both organised by Forestry England.

Action 5: Coordinator and others to continue to develop these new collaborations.

Increasing access to and impact of tree pest and pathogen data

The THCSN has acknowledged “data” as one of its priority actions.  The essence of citizen science is people and data – enthusiastic people (officials and citizens) looking out for and reporting tree pests and diseases and then their data being shared so that policymakers and land managers can manage the treats more effectively.

Sonia Desai (Forest Research) updated the THCSN on the “Sharing tree health data” project:

• Funded by a Knowledge Asset Grant Fund run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT)
• Developed an “open data interface” (ODI) facility to import and share data tree pests and disease data externally
• Data quality is always a key issue
• The legal framework is crucial
• Three ideas emerged from a series of workshops held with interested parties: (a) dashboard for registered TreeAlert users; (b) online GIS mapping facility and (c) access via the ODI to raw data
• Discussions about sharing data with the NBN Trust (the UK’s largest repository of publicly available biodiversity data) are planned

Research

Samantha Green (Coventry University) and Pete Stevens (Environmental consultant, AJS Floodrisk) made a presentation on “Growing connections” a project to research, promote and support community tree nurseries .  THCSN members were invited to a meeting on the project at Garden Organic, Ryton Gardens on 27 September 2024.  The importance to small independent nurseries of minimal bureaucracy and guidance written in plain English was emphasised.

Policy

Defra and APHA update: Jake Morris, Steph Godliman (Defra) and Lucy Carson-Taylor (APHA)

The forthcoming general election with its restrictions on policy limited the policy update.  However, topics covered included:

• Plant Health Week (6-12 May 2024) – the Plant Health Communications Group will review the week, for which feedback was sought from THCSN members
• Plant Health Accord
• Plant Health Action website
• APHA’s exhibit “Asian Hornet – Stay Alert – Take Action – Protect Our Pollinators” won the best ‘Discovery’ Exhibit at the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Two key learning points were that the public respond well to:

• a “call to action” approach
•  simple to use and effective technology, such as the “Asian Hornet Watch” app.

Scotland: Matt Elliot (RBG Edinburgh) gave an update on tree health work at RBG Edinburgh and work of the Scotland Plant Health Centre.  Topics covered, included:

• Threats to plants in the gardens, including Phytophthoras, especially P. ramorum, bark beetles and Golden root mealybug on Meconopsis spp., which like fuchsia gall mite, has been spread by enthusiastic amateur gardeners sharing plant material
• A funding scheme for small projects
• Guidance documents e.g. Biosecurity best practice for conservation
• 39 Pest Increasing the accessibility information on notifiable plant pests for Professional Operators

Action

Observatree and TreeAlert

Peter Crow (Observatree & Forest Research) gave an update on news and developments on Observatree and TreeAlert, including appointment of Vicky Bolton as the new Observatree volunteer manager; publication of a new identification guide on Agrilus fleischeri – a wood boring beetle Populus spp. and willow (Salix spp.); the XXVI IUFRO World Congress, at which Perter gave a presentation on “Ten years of Observatree: The evolution of a tree health citizen science project and the challenges that lie ahead in a session on “Public engagement to keep urban trees and communities healthy”

Tour d’table

Tree Council are contributing to several activities related to tree health including:

• MistleGO – a mistletoe survey
• Sooty Bark Disease of sycamore
• Survival rates of new tree plantings

17 July 2024

Dr David Slawson,

Coordinator THCSN

APPENDIX 1 Attendees

In person:

Online:

Apologies: