myForest • About Forest Lab

Can You Help?

Native oak trees - keystone species in many woodlands — are under threat from environmental change, and in some places by Acute Oak Decline (AOD). We are asking woodland owners and managers to take part in an important new research project aiming to monitor the health of oak trees across the country.

We are interested generally in finding out more about tree health across the UK, while AOD is currently only thought to affect trees in south-east England and parts of Wales. AOD can be diagnosed by a depleted oak crown, black stem bleeding, and D-shaped exit holes (left by the Agrilus biguttatus beetle). The disease can seriously diminish health and resilience of infected trees, for example by making them more susceptible to honey fungus. AOD can spread within a woodland once introduced and exacerbate existing stresses.

Sylva Foundation is working closely with scientists from Forest Research and Aberystwyth University to understand more about this devastating disease. We are looking for volunteers to assess five or more oak trees, between June and August. Using a purpose-built web app, volunteers can help by assessing each oak tree which should take no more than 5 minutes. The data will then be shared with researchers via Forest Lab.

Please sign up to the project today to help this important research. Simply click on Forest Lab after creating an account (free) in myForest. Full details about how to take part and data privacy are provided at sign-up.

About Forest Lab

Forest Lab is an application within myForest which provides technology and tools to help land managers share data to inform environmental science, and in return improve knowledge exchange between scientists and land managers.

Sylva Foundation and Forest Research are working in partnership to deliver Forest Lab, enabling myForest users to collect and share data from their woodlands to help support research. myForest users are responsible for about 9% of woodland area across the UK, therefore collectively are able to represent a wide range of woodland types, and to explore many different issues, at thousands of different locations across the country. We hope that as a result we will create a unique and powerful tool to capture important information and data about environmental change.

How to take part?

Taking part in Forest Lab requires you to have an account on the myForest platform. An Engagement Agreement sets out our joint commitments in working with you, and also what we expect from you in return. We hope this provides clarity and detail on important aspects, including commitments on your time, any legal considerations, and any specific responsibilities.

As with other areas of the myForest platform, we take pride in the care and attention we apply to managing your personal data. We have specific data sharing terms and conditions for Forest Lab because we are sharing some personal and/or environmental data with our partners Forest Research. In time, we hope to start working with more partners, in which case we will always be explicit and clear about the sharing of any data and ask for your permission.

Join myForest

Science Projects

Overall, Forest Lab will provide valuable additional data to compliment the National Forest Inventory. Forest Lab is also supporting projects that explore a range of specific subjects, ranging from forest health to tree growth:

Ips Project - Volunteers are helping to monitor the potential movement of the invasive tree pest the eight-tooth spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) which affects spruce trees.
Wildfire Project - Volunteers are providing valuable information and data to help our understanding of wildfire risk. Taking part will decrease wildfire risk for participants, and ultimately for all woodland owners across the country.
Resilience Project - We are exploring tree species suitability and yield to understand more about which tree species are ecologically suited to particular sites. This will help participants, and woodland owners across the country, improve the resilience of their woodlands under climate change.
Tree Growth Project - Tree growth is an important feature affecting ecological conditions in forests. Volunteers are collecting repeated measurements of tree diameter using dendrometer bands to help improve our understanding of the responses of trees to changes in site management and environmental conditions.
In Development - new projects are currently in development and the project team is always keen to hear from other researchers interested in proposing new projects.