As drought is declared in parts of the UK, we look at the potential implications for trees and forests and highlight how CFP research is tackling evidence gaps to support future adaptation.
Blog
From cones to canopy: Reviving Scots pine for the future
Jessica from our Scots pine breeding team gives us an exciting update on their seed extractions work as part of the preparation for reopening the Scots pine breeding programme!
Invasive Species Week 2026
This week, we are highlighting the research going on across the CFP to help manage the impact of invasive non-native species (INNS) on our treescapes.
Intern diary: Jessica on restarting the Scots pine breeding programme
Find out about Jessica’s experience working to infuse resilience into the Scots pine genetic resource.
Intern diary: Flynn on detecting oak shake
Find out about Flynn’s experience working on the development of non-destructive testing methodology for the detection of oak shake in standing trees.
Intern diary: Vedika on applying dendrochronology for genomic resilience
Find out about Vedika’s experience working to combine dendrochronology and genomics to understand genomic resilience in English oak.
Farmers are tree health heroes!
As part of National Plant Health Week (11 – 17 May 2026), we are celebrating plant and tree health heroes! Our Farmer action for tree resilience project is working with farmers to develop tree management resources and knowledge exchange opportunities.
Intern diary: Daniel on exploring the role of Scots pine resilience to environmental stress
Find out about Daniel’s experience working to investigate the resilience of Scots pine to drought and waterlogging.
Intern diary: Mahya on elm genetics and the evolution of Dutch elm disease
Find out about Mahya’s experience in understanding how Dutch elm disease evolves and spreads.
Intern diary: Cas on creating recombination maps for ash using population genetics data
Find out about Cas’ experience working to investigate ash health genomics after long-term ash dieback exposure.
Intern diary: Liam on simulating potential increases in ash dieback
Find out about Liam’s experience working to investigate ash health genomics after long-term ash dieback exposure.
Intern diary: Finlay on investigating Scots pine resilience
Find out about Finlay’s experience working to investigate the resilience of Scots pine to drought and waterlogging.
Interns go behind the scenes at the Millennium Seed Bank
On 10 Feb, our Interns had the valuable opportunity to visit Wakehurst Botanical Garden and go behind the scenes at the Millennium Seed Bank.
Celebrating women & girls in forest science!
To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 Feb), a range of our talented CFP researchers share their reflections on working in forest science!
From frosty fields to forest resilience: Reviving the Scots pine breeding programme
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.
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…
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…
Intern diary: Cas on elm genomics
Find out about Cas’ internship learning bioinformatics techniques to support our understanding of the elm genome.
Intern diary: Josh the nematode nerd
Josh became quite an expert in identifying tiny microscopic worms!
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.
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.
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.
Elm loss and restoration – who cares?
This National Tree Week, PhD student, Fritha, tells us about the work she and CFP intern Jack are doing to discover attitudes to elm restoration – who cares, why they care and what we can do about it. They would love to see you at one of their workshops.
Centre for Forest Protection at the IUFRO World Congress 2024
Centre for Forest Protection researchers had the opportunity to present work at the enormous IUFRO World Congress 2024. Find out what they made of it.
National Plant Health Week: Understanding a devastating bacterial pathogen
PhD student Jiaqi tells us about her work investigating potential impacts on British trees of a bacterial disease that is causing major problems for crop growers across the world.
Intern diary: Phoebe
Phoebe tells us what she got up to during her internship at Kew.
Intern diary: Sian
Read about Sian’s six months as a Centre for Forest Protection intern.
Intern diary: Eve
Find out about what our intern Eve got up to on her six month Centre for Forest Protection placement with Forest Research.