Oak Crown Condition Workshops

Crown condition is used to score how healthy trees are. Essentially, the more leaves a tree has, the more energy it can produce and use for growth. We are running training courses this summer, so that you can assess visually assess your own trees and monitor their condition (especially useful for those in Observatree who monitor sentinel trees or tree managers looking for subtle differences in condition). In addition, observations collected on the day will help to extend a national monitoring scheme.

Crown condition monitoring has been undertaken by Forest Research since the 1980s, but this is limited to 84 sites with oak trees. We would like to understand the changing condition of oak trees at a wider number of locations, and we think sentinel tree monitoring by citizen scientists could help us achieve this goal.

As part of the BacStop project we are developing methods to standardise and calibrate observations from individual volunteers, so that they link seamlessly with the Forest Research datasets.

This training will involve two steps:

1. A short webinar in advance (planned for 2pm on 19th June). This would let us introduce the idea of condition monitoring ahead of meeting up in the field. (A recording will also be available if you can’t make the date).
2. A half day training day, this would be outdoors walking around a parkland and discussing the trees we pass and includes a final activity where everyone can score 10 sentinel trees.
   

Workshops will take place on three dates in July 2023, 12-3 pm each day:

• 4th July – Attingham (Shrewsbury)
• 5th July – Blickling (Norwich)
• 6th July – Ickworth (Bury St Edmunds)

Please contact Nathan, [email protected] if you would like to book a free place at one of the workshops. Full joining instructions will be sent ahead of the dates.