On a frosty November day, the Scots pine tree breeding team set out to collect pine cones for our ‘Infusing resilience into the Scots pine genetic resource’ project.
Year: 2025
Communities and culture at the heart of ‘lost’ tree restoration
New research from the Centre for Forest Protection and University of St Andrews highlights the importance of considering social and cultural values when restoring ‘lost’ tree species.
New CFP interns hit the ground running!
At the start of October, we welcomed our fourth cohort of interns to the Centre for Forest Protection.
Phase 2: Highlights from Our First Biannual Meeting
In Nov 25, we held the first biannual meeting of CFP Phase 2, bringing together the CFP Core Team, Board Members, Defra and CFP Project Leads, researchers and collaborators.
Sweet Resilience: Growing a Career in Tree Genomics
PhD student, and former CFP intern, Phoebe Swift tells us about her route into a career in tree genomics…
A Future Filled with Trees: National Tree Week celebrates it’s 50th anniversary
Tomorrow (22 Nov) marks the start of National Tree Week 2025, the UK’s largest annual celebration of trees!
Speed Breeding Project Takes Root at Niab, East Malling
On 21 October, the team behind Centre for Forest Protection Phase 2 project ‘Speed Breeding Technologies for UK Broadleaved Trees’ held their first in-person meeting.
Goodbye and Hello – New Centre for Forest Protection Lead Appointed
The new Centre for Forest Protection (CFP) Lead joins us from The Tree Council.
Geoff Monck’s Mission to Save the Yew
Geoff Monck tells us about his research into the apparent long-term decline of ancient and veteran yew trees…
Upcoming event: Britain’s Forest Future: Research-Practice Exchange
Join us for the most significant forest and woodland research, policy and practice knowledge-exchange event in 2025!
New e-learning module available
Learn more about non-native pests and diseases, transmission pathways, biosecurity measures, and more in our second e-learning module.
Watch our Spring 2025 webinar series & intern talks
Earlier this year, we ran a series of webinars to showcase the results from some of our phase 1 research projects.
New CFP Research Published
Scientists from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Forest Research have today published a new study comparing the benefits of tree planting vs natural colonisation for future resilience of UK woodlands.
Survey for managers of mixed-species stands to contribute to research into drought resilience
As part of one of our new research projects, scientists at Forest Research are seeking practitioners who have experience of planting, managing or overseeing a tree species mixture to take part in a short survey.
Centre for Forest Protection Internship Vacancies – 2025/26 (CLOSED)
We are recruiting six new interns across Forest Research and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to work on a wide range of projects. Take a look to see if there is one for you!
Intern diary – Cas on elm genomics
Find out about Cas’ internship learning bioinformatics techniques to support our understanding of the elm genome.
CFP attend RHS Green Careers Event
Our team attended the Royal Horticultural Society Green Careers event recently promoting the many interesting careers available in forestry and forestry science.
Intern diary – Josh the nematode nerd
Josh became quite an expert in identifying tiny microscopic worms!
Learn about pests and diseases with our e-learning module
Learn about some of the key pest and disease threats to our trees and woodlands.
Intern diary – Katy on methods to detect a bacterial threat
This National Plant Health Week – find out about Katy’s internship experience working on lab methods to detect bacteria that are a potential threat to our trees.
Intern diary – Apoorva on annotating the genome of an ash tree
This National Plant Health Week find out about Kew intern Apoorva’s tree health work supporting genomics research into high and low susceptibility to ash dieback.
Defra Announces New Funding for the Centre for Forest Protection
The Centre for Forest Protection has been awarded £4m to support 17 more projects in 2025-26.
Intern Diary – Catherine on Mapping Elm
This National Plant Health Week, find out about Catherine’s intern project mapping elm that survived Dutch elm disease in the UK.
Intern Diary – Jack on public perceptions of ‘lost’ tree species
During National Plant Health Week, Find out about Jack’s experience as a CFP intern working on a social science project on elm trees.
Ash genomics conference
Our Kew researchers have been exchanging knowledge with international ash genomics research.
A Day of Discovery: Centre for Forest Protection Interns Explore Wakehurst’s Millennium Seed Bank and Gardens
Last week, our six Centre for Forest Protection interns had an inspiring and informative visit to Kew’s wild botanic garden at Wakehurst. This unique opportunity gave them a behind-the-scenes look at the Millennium Seed Bank, a world-renowned conservation facility dedicated to safeguarding plant biodiversity.
Centre for Forest Protection Webinars
Join us at the end of March to hear about our latest research findings.