Welcome to the Herefordshire Tree Forum

Dr Matt Combes, a tree epidemiologist at the University of Warwick and the lead author of a review article that summarises various insights into the disease says that although a lot of trees are going to die, "ash dieback infection is not a death sentence.” Many of Britain’s ash trees might be more resilient than initially believed – and emerging solutions could help protect them. See news report in The Guardian HERE

Jackie Shallcross,, project lead at The Tree Council writes: “Our Trees Outside Woodland agroforestry project revealed that one of the biggest barriers to establishing more trees in the farmed landscape is people feeling they don’t have access to enough agroforestry knowledge, support or advice. This new company Land App feature helps tackle that by suggesting initial bespoke plans that will work for them and their land."

For more information click HERE

This is the second year of a national-level mistletoe survey which you can help with, to try to map the changing abundance and distribution of this hemi-parasitic plant. A Citizen Science project, recorders are encouraged to submit observations of mistletoe they see via the MistleGO! survey which they can install onto the Survey123 app on their smartphones. The survey was developed and operated by Ollie Spacey at the University of Oxford and colleagues in the Science & Research team at The Tree Council. For more information click HERE

To celebrate National Tree Week, Queenswood Coronation Fund and Herefordshire Wildlife Trust are delighted to announce the re-launch of Queenswood Arboretum's Tree Finder with interactive mapping to help you explore and learn more about our wonderful collection of trees from around the world. Go straight to the Treefinder MAP HERE

There are said to be fewer examples of the British native black poplar in the world than there are giant pandas and sadly, the one at Bulls Hill near Ross-on-Wye, fell on Saturday 7th November 2024, a victim of the high winds. It fell right across the lane, completely blocking the lane for two days until the 1.8 metre diameter trunk could be cleared. However it caused no significant damage, even missing all the nearby telephone and power cables, . The base of the tree was very extensively decayed and had been for some time, but the tree had been retained because of the rarity of the species. Its age cannot be known with certainty but it was almost certainly exceeded the 'normal' life expectancy of the species of about 200 years.

Ivor, a cocker spaniel x labrador, aged six, has been trained to identify the highly destructive pathogen Phytophthora ramorum in soil, plant material, and water. This destructive organism  can cause extensive damage and even death to more than 150 plant species including significant mortality on larch, which are important timber trees. Ivor has demonstrated an impressive 89% success rate in detecting the pathogen and Forest Research is now exploring the use of detection dogs to help combat other pests and diseases such as the Asian Longhorn Beetle and the potentially very destructive eight-toothed spruce bark beetle. Find out more HERE

Scientists have assessed that more than a third of tree species are facing extinction in the wild, including several in the UK. Their number now exceeds all threatened birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians put together, according to the latest update to the official extinction red list. More information HERE
At the same time, International forest pledges to halt & reverse global deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 have failed to be achieved. On the contrary, an annual assessment report reveals a sobering trajectory of ongoing or increasing global deforestation and degradation in 2023 More information HERE

The SCATTER protect sponsered by the Woodland Trust uses state of the art LIDAR tecnology to build a digital archive of ancient and veteran oak trees and characterise their shape, size and form to understand the similarities and differences in their architecture, to create a digital archive of ancient oak trees that’s openly accessible for the public.

More information HERE