Free Event: Monitoring Tree Health with Tree Talkers
On behalf of the Team Sentinel Treescapes Project Team and The Tree Council:
If trees could talk, what would they tell us? How can technology be applied to gain insight into the health of trees?
Background
Tree health is an important issue: our trees are suffering. From ash dieback and oak acute decline through to the impacts of droughts and storms, our trees need care.
We need to know more about the wellbeing of our trees to protect our treescapes for the future. Amazingly, trees can talk to us once we work out how to listen. To see what the trees are telling us, we've been piloting a project - The Sentinel Treescapes partnership - in Broadland District for the last 18 months.
This project has been developing a wireless sensor network, like automated 'weather stations' but for tree health. The sensors, known as Tree Talkers, send real-time data on tree growth, sap flow and trunk movement to the internet. This data can then be viewed for individual trees as well as groups of trees and woodlands on local, regional, or national scales.
So far, the project has been supported by Broadland Tree Warden volunteers who have played a vital role in the collection of data through visual tree assessment, monitoring and maintaining the Tree Talker sensors.
We would like to explore the possibilities of developing the programme across East Anglia and are offering a free workshop aiming to showcase this exciting project.
Free Event
Join us, to discover more about how innovations in technology are being used in the science of tree health and find out how this project could be an opportunity for students across learning stages to engage with science and research.
By being part of a future Tree Talker project, you and your school could:
- Incorporate real-life examples of science and research in teaching the national curriculum
- Be the eyes, ears, and voice for vulnerable trees in your community
- Make a valuable contribution to a national tree health monitoring programme
- Be part of a growing network of citizen scientists across the UK
- Raise awareness of tree health and the importance of monitoring
- Help to protect our trees and treescapes for the future
What: Tree Health Monitoring - protecting the future of our treescapes
When: Friday 24 June, 2-4pm OR 5-7pm
Where: North Burlingham Church, Main Street, North Burlingham, Norwich NR13 4TA
Booking is essential for this free event. Click on a link below to book your preferred session:
Refreshments provided.
We really do hope you can join us. We would love to know more about how you think this technology could contribute to your teaching and other school activities, and how we could help you to make such a project work in your school grounds.
And if there is enough interest from across the region, your feedback could help enable us to develop a business case to seek the funding necessary to make this important project a reality, and to make a case for extending this project into schools across the region.
We're at the beginning of this adventure, and we invite you to join us. Are you interested in discovering more?
We look forward to meeting you.
Additional information
The Norfolk Sentinel Treescapes project is a partnership between Fera Science Ltd, The Tree Council, Newcastle University, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the University of Strathclyde. The project is in collaboration with the Broadland Tree Warden Network, who are our valuable citizen scientists, and Norfolk County Council, who have granted permission for use of the sites. This is a Natural Environment Research Council, (NERC) funded project and is running from August 2020 to December 2022.
For more information about the event, contact Sam Village, National Tree Warden Scheme Coordinator, The Tree Council, at sam.village@treecouncil.org.uk.
More information about The Tree Council is available on their website.
This news item was published : 31 May 2022.