The Hereford Bull

The Hereford Bull, a new boat built by T Nielsen in the traditional style of a Wye Trow, was named at a ceremony in Hereford City centre on 12th May.

The Trow included timber from our OneOak project, which was used to make the Transom Beam.

A plaque on the transom beam acknowledges to the OneOak timber

Watch a short film showing the naming ceremony:

Read more posts about the trow

Oak jewel beetle survey on TreeWatch

The oak jewel beetle Agrilus biguttatus, lays its eggs in crevices on the bark of native oak trees. The larvae that hatch then tunnel through the bark to feed on the tree tissues underneath the bark. If large numbers of this insect infest a tree it may lead to tree death. When the larvae pupate, the emerging young adult beetles make very characteristic ‘D’-shaped exit holes.

Scientists at Forest Research want to know more about the distribution of this beetle, so it is just as important that your report an absence as much as a presence!

Oak powdery mildew survey on TreeWatch

The second new survey is on Oak powdery mildewsurvey. Powdery mildew of oak is caused by the fungus Erysiphe alphitoides (also known as Microsphaera alphitoides) and it is a common foliar pathogen of oak trees across Europe. First found in England in 1908, it is thought to have been a factor in an oak dieback episode in the 1920s. Scientists today believe that it may one of the factors that is contributing to the decline of our oak trees. The mildew attacks young leaves and soft shoots of oaks, covering them with a felty-white mycelium (fine white threads). It causes eventually the leaves to shrivel and dry out or turn brown.

If you can help us by monitoring the health of oak trees near you, please get involved.  It is easy and fun.  To find out more and to take part visit www.TreeWatch.com

You can read The Oxford Times article here

Read more about this important meeting on the authors’ The New Sylva blog and keep up to date with their progress on Twitter @newsylva.

Authors (Gabriel Hemery & Sarah Simblet) with Editors from Bloomsbury (Natalie Hunt & Richard Atkinson) next to a 900 year old oak tree

Sylva Scholar Kirsty Monk conducting fieldwork mapping fungal cords at Wytham Woods. Here the white thread of a cord-forming fungi is being tracked and samples taken for later DNA analysis.

Read more posts about Kirsty Monk’s work

Afternoon session - how to carry out a myForest woodland inventory

Making the most of woodlands

Practical workshop on woodland management planning and stakeholder engagement

The Sylva Foundation, BioRegional and the Forestry Commission warmly invite you to attend this free event which aims to help you identify and realise the opportunities which exist from managing your woodlands.

These event will take place in the following locations:

• Surrey Hills AONB on Thursday 31st May 2012, 9.30am to 3pm, lunch included
• The National Trust’s Ashridge Estate on Tuesday 19th June 2012, 9.30am to 3pm, lunch included

If you would like to register for your free place at either one of these events, please so do by following the relevant link below:

Surrey Hills AONB event
Ashridge Estate event

Event details:

Well-managed woodlands can potentially provide you with a host of benefits and opportunities. This event will support you in working with your woodland by:

• Identifying possible markets for your woodland products with a session on producing for the woodfuel market.
• Introducing free tools and resources to help you manage your woodlands.
• A practical interactive session in the afternoon to demonstrate their use.

Experts will be on hand to advise you on aspects of management such as surveying and increasing the productivity of your woodlands.

The day will include the launch of a new resource to help in your engagement with your local community and other stakeholders who you may need to deal with through your woodland work, and as part of the process of developing an UK Woodland Assurance Standard management plan. The new guidance pack and free promotional materials will help to guide you through this process, and a local woodland owner will be there to offer their first hand experience.

Please feel free to pass this invitation to anyone you think may be interested in attending.

David Rees of the Oxfordshire Woodland Project carrying out a LEADER woodland inventory training session in Southern Oxfordshire

This event will be the final meeting of a LEADER funded project that has supported woodland owners, managers and forestry business across the Southern Oxfordshire LEADER area Over the past two years.

The Sylva Foundation and the Oxfordshire Woodland Project will be hosting the event to review the project and discuss the future prospects for Southern Oxfordshire woodlands, the forestry sector and wood-using businesses in the LEADER area.

Please find further details of the event and how to register

by clicking here.

Sylva is supporting the Independent Panel on Forestry (IPF) in conducting a survey of woodland owners and managers in England as part of the preparation for its final report later this year. The results of this survey will help inform the panel’s recommendations to Government.

This Survey is being managed by URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited in association with RDI Associates, CJC Consulting and Forest Research on behalf of the IPF and is hosted by the Sylva Foundation, which has worked closely with RDI Associates to shape the survey.

The survey went live this week and stays open until Monday 7 May at mid-day.

The IPF survey is integrated into the British Woodlands 2012 (BW2012) survey that will launch later this year – in June – reaching out to woodland owners across Britain. BW2012 will augment the IPF survey work and provide a very rich picture of the views and aspirations of woodland owners in Britain. The Sylva Foundation is working with an impressive array of key forestry organisations to come up with a series of questions that will really get to the heart of woodland management in Britain.

• How much woodland is actively managed?
• What activities do owners think of as ‘management’?
• Do these equate with sustainable management activities defined in the UK Forestry Standard?

If our woodlands are to thrive, their owners need to take a more active approach to woodland management, supported by policies developed using robust evidence.

To reduce ‘survey fatigue’, respondents who complete the IPF survey will be fast-tracked through BW2012 and will not have to re-enter data twice.

Click here to open the IPF survey of woodland owners and managers in England

Terry Hardaker & relief carving in progress of the OneOak tree - made from the OneOak tree's wood

Terry is carving an image some 48 x 60cm in size, weighing 11 kilos, from one of the offcuts from a longer board used by a furniture maker. Terry works with traditional woodcarvers’ chisels but for this work he removed the ‘ground’ around the outline of the tree with a routing machine. He will still be working on the carving when he joins us at Art in Action in July (read more).

Terry is a member of the Ox & Bucks Woodcarvers Association (see British Wood Carvers Association) whose members meet weekly near Oxford to work on their projects. He trained in portrait painting then spent 16 years in raising silver plate before joining the woodcarvers in 2004.

Terry was invited to carve the OneOak tree and become part of the project having been ‘spotted’ at Art in Action in 2010. He says he has no room left at home to display woodcarvings and so accepts commissions to keep his eye in. He has designed and worked on historical themes for the 1000th anniversary of the formation of the county of Oxfordshire and the 450th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter to the city of Abingdon.

Asian longhorn beetle leaflet

Forest Research and the Food & Environment Research Agency (Fera) are working to eradicate a breeding population of Asian longhorn beetle found in the Paddock Wood area of Maidstone in Kent.

The Asian longhorn beetle, native to China, poses a serious threat to a wide range of broadleaved trees. It has caused extensive damage to trees in the USA and Italy since being accidentally introduced there in recent years.

The existence of this population was confirmed first by Forest Research scientists in March.Today it was confirmed the larvae (grubs) of Asian longhorn beetle were found on 22 trees in the area and five more are considered highly likely to be infested. The infestation zone (i.e. the area within a 100m radius of each infested tree) currently covers about 8 hectares (20 acres or 80,000m2).

Asian longhorn beetles can infest a wide range of broadleaved trees and shrubs. The larvae feed undetected on the inside of the host tree or shrub, which could kill it or leave it weakened and susceptible to further pest and disease damage. Although the larvae are unlikely to emerge as adult beetles before the end of June in the UK, it is important that we remove all infested and potentially infested trees as early as possible before then. They would be a serious threat to UK woodland if they became established.

Find out more on the Forestry Commission’s webpage on the Asian Longhorn beetle. Please note that Fera must be notified of sightings of beetles or other evidence of infestation by ALB, such as exit holes in the trunk of host plants. There is a legal obligation to report the beetle or suspicious signs included in the Plant Health (England) Order 2005 and the Plant Health (Forestry) Order 2005.

Read more about our work to combat tree pests and diseases at www.TreeWatch.com