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Short Abstract

Observatree is a citizen science project reporting on tree pests and diseases. It has been running across Great Britain since 2012 with both government and NGO partners. We will describe how far we are along the journey to becoming “strategic infrastructure” and the challenges that still remain.

Abstract

We will describe the operating model for Observatree, focused on 200 trained volunteers spread across Great Britain (GB).

There have been 25 serious tree pest or disease introductions to GB since 1990, with ash dieback, the best known, costing an estimated £15 billion to manage. The Woodland Trust alone spends over £1.5 million a year on this issue across the 1000+ woods we own.

Observatree volunteers are trained to recognise and report 20+ priority pests or diseases. The project’s volunteer network is now part of the government’s emergency outbreak response plan.

We will share what we have learnt during this project about building trust between our partners in government and NGOs: strong interpersonal relationships, shared interests, increased confidence in data quality & spread plus increased credibility of the project over time.

Observatree models strong co-operation between the three GB countries, where environment is a devolved issue. Additionally, we have had the opportunity to share good practice into mainland Europe.

Around half of all tree pest and disease records to the government’s public reporting tool “Tree Alert” come from our volunteer cohort. We will describe how data from this tool is currently used and plans for future use to embed further into GB’s strategic infrastructure and policy.

We will also describe how we have achieved sustainable funding support following our initial five-year LIFE+ grant.

Inclusion is a work in progress with one group at a time, starting with a focus on a younger volunteer demographic.