Heartwood’s training schedule is rapidly becoming as full as its felling season. The latest event, part of a summer season of courses designed to broaden the group’s expertise and skills base, was a day-long course with Dr. Charles Lane, Consultant Plant Pathologist with FERA and lead organiser in the EU Life-Funded citizen science project ObservaTree.

The tree health course began at the YHA in Moira where attendees were introduced to the basics of tree health and its impacts upon woodland environments. The group were taught how to recognise the signs and symptoms of trees under stress and to evaluate trees in context to determine whether disease was likely to be present or whether other stresses such as compaction, spray drift or mechanical damage were the cause of ill health.