Forest Research news highlights - 2008

December

• Assessing the fate of direct-sown seed
  Investigating the fate of direct-sown seeds of birch, rowan, Scots pine and Sitka spruce on an upland clearfell site on North Wales
• Calling all private woodland owners
  Are you willing to have a research plot in your woodland?
• Forest Research wins awards
  Awards at Royal Welsh Show and to Professor Clive Brasier
• Greening Alice Holt
  Initiatives at our Alice Holt site in Surrey
• Investigating the cause of extensive stem bleeding on oaks
  A 2008 study to determine possible causal agents
• Landscape-scale conservation
  Two collaborative projects successfully completed
• New toolkit measures the health benefits of urban trees
  Tool to predict the PM10 concentrations before and after greenspace establishment
• Rural Research and Strategy Partnership launches Research Workshop Series
  Workshops planned for 2009
• Technical Services Unit – listening to customers
  Providing experimental and survey fieldwork, nursery and engineering workshop services

July

• Canadian Professor collaborates on Continuous Cover Forestry
  Phil Comeau, a Professor of Silviculture from the University of Alberta, visits Forest Research to work with staff involved with continuous cover forestry (CCF)
• Forest Research at Sustainabilitylive!
  Biomass Energy Centre and Urban Regeneration and Greenspace Centre at the recent Sustainabilitylive! Exhibition
• Forest-wood chain: EFORWOOD goes forward
  Series of meetings in Vienna that examined the sustainability of the forest–wood chain across Europe
• Launch of the Rural Research and Strategy Partnership
  A new collaboration between Forest Research and the universities of Reading, Surrey, Sussex and the University for the Creative Arts
• LiDAR provides helpful information for felling operations
  How Forest Research helped foresters assess which machinery will be best for individual operations
• The sustainable establishment of woodland on landfill sites
  New Forest Research publication, Woodland Establishment on Landfill Sites: Ten Years of Research

May

• New Chief Executive for Forest Research
  Dr James Pendlebury appointed Chief Executive of Forest Research

April

• East meets West in international forestry co-operation
  Members of the Russian Federal Forestry Agency visit Alice Holt Research Forest
• Headley chosen as site for new herbicide field trial
  Treating woody weeds with a range of herbicide mixes
• Health and well-being of forestry workers
  Working to develop guidelines, methods and tools to analyse the health and well-being of forest machine operators
• Keeping communication channels open
  Links to the Forestry Commission and private and public forestry and land-use stakeholders throughout Great Britain
• Mountain forestry meets social science
  More than production: forests, livelihoods and social significance for mountain people
• Natural regeneration workshop
  Considering techniques for encouraging natural regeneration in native pinewoods
• Norwegian colleagues share polymerase chain reaction (PCR) expertise
  Forest Research pathologist spends three weeks at the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute
• Restoring Britain’s peatlands
  Sharing details about the Forestry Commission’s work in developing techniques for restoring peatlands
• Scottish crossbill census
  Survey by Forest Research to determine the availability of the Scottish crossbill’s food, conifer seed in Scotland

February

• Adapting Scotland’s forests to a future climate
  The impacts of climate change on forestry in Scotland
• Biodiversity conservation at Alice Holt nurseries
  Working to conserve Torreya taxifolia, the stinking cedar
• Native Woodland Survey of Scotland
  Working to build an invaluable database of information about Scotland’s native woodlands
• Oak Pinhole Borer – from rarity to pest
  Tackling this new pest
• Pine Wilt Disease – new model helps analyse risk in Europe
  Predicting pine mortality
• Restoration of floodplain woodland for flood alleviation
  Development of a sustainable, catchment-based approach to flood protection
• Seminars show off acoustic tools for timber testing
  Using acoustic techniques to allow non-destructive assessment before a tree is felled

Contact

For further information about any of the above news stories either contact the person named on the respective news item or:

Hugh Williams
Forest Research
Alice Holt Lodge
Farnham
Surrey GU10 4LH

Tel: +44 (0)1420 22255
Tel direct: +44 (0)1420 526188
Mobile: +44 (0)7909 906976
Email: hugh.williams@forestry.gsi.gov.uk