Oak research open house

In the wonderfully named village of Little Snoring in Norfolk is a unique and pioneering experiment. It is home to the Bac-Stop field site which includes 144 intensively monitored trees. This makes it the largest ever tree-focused drought field trial in the UK. On 12 July 2022, a lucky group of stakeholders were invited to tour the site and meet some of the researchers for the first Bac-Stop open day. It was enjoyable and informative for researchers and visitors, particularly the opportunity to engage with others in an unhurried and relaxed way in such an interesting setting.

The open day welcomed 25 stakeholders including funders, policy makers, charities, FCE and private consultants. Over the course of 2 hours they looked around the field site and visited seven stalls set up by the researchers. The researchers put a great deal of effort into their stalls having poster displays and demonstration material. The stalls included:

1. Pathology: which displayed the causes and symptoms of Acute Oak Decline (AOD) including samples of diseased bark, plus live and preserved Agrilus biguttatus beetles.
2. Tree and soil biochemistry: With equipment like soil sensors, dataloggers, and TreeTalkers on show for handling, and posters of the measurements and monitoring results so far.
3. Oak microbiome: This stall illustrated the importance of microbiomes in tree health and disease with benefits such as stimulating tree growth, providing nutrients, and protecting against diseases.
4. Chemical ecology of the beetle-bacteria-oak tree interactions: covering the use of bacterial odours to lure beetles as a potential management tool, and signals from Agrilus larvae which might trigger virulence genes in AOD bacteria.
5. Greenhouse gases and soil respiration: showcasing Forest Research’s greenhouse gas monitoring and soil CO₂ flux measurements.
6. Social science research on attitudes to oak trees and AOD: including key results from a survey of 6,000 people, interviews with land managers, and the ‘Odes 2 Oaks’ campaign
7. General tree health: with leaflets and other demonstration material on key tree pest and diseases of forest trees, such as galls of the oriental chestnut gall wasp and cocoons constructed by the elm zig zag sawfly.

Feedback declared that the day was both enjoyable and beneficial. Both visitors and team members felt this format could be used more often to demonstrate other aspects of forestry research. The researchers particularly enjoyed the opportunity to talk to such a wide range of people from different organisations. They also learnt from the interactions, as their conversations stimulated lots of ideas about how they could do things better. Project lead Sandra Denman said: “Overall, it was a great experience and quite normalising after the Covid-induced isolation! It was just great for everyone’s wellbeing.”