- Resilient Forests
The Resilient Forests research programme aims to ensure the long-term economic, environmental and social sustainability of forestry by creating forests that are more resilient to future uncertainty in a changing world. Resilient forests are sustainable, productive and healthy, and should represent a low-risk asset in a world experiencing changing climate, political and market volatility, and changing social norms.
Programme manager: Peter Clinton
May 2026: NEW TOOL – Click here to use the new Red Needle Cast Regional Risk Forecasting Tool
This digital tool provides a regional scale indication of the likelihood of an RNC outbreak, based on recent weather conditions. It is designed to help foresters understand when environmental conditions are becoming favourable for disease development.
- A six-year programme (2020-2026)
- Building on work done in the Growing Confidence in Future Forests (GCFF) programme and Healthy Trees Healthy Future (HTHF) programmes
- Two major research programmes have split out from Resilient Forests: Tree Root Microbiome Programme and Scion’s Transforming Tree Phenotyping programme
- Funding from Scion’s Strategic Science Investment Fund and Forest Growers Levy Trust
- Comprises medium and short-term projects under three main research areas:
- Managing risk and uncertainty
- Productivity and wood quality
- Enhancing resilience/management of pests and diseases.
The Resilient Forests Programme has three closely inter-linked research areas:
Managing risk and uncertainty – understanding public perceptions of plantation forestry; understanding forest companies’ social and environmental activities and the way these are reported to the public. Climate change adaptation and adaptive management through a portfolio approach of forest management options
Productivity and wood quality – understanding GxExS interactions, new approaches to tree growth modelling, soil and site management, and better understanding the management factors influencing wood quality. Exploring the forest microbiome
Enhancing resilience/management of pests and diseases – growth impacts, epidemiology of common foliar diseases (red needle cast and dothistroma), new treatment options, and automonous monitoring systems
Explore Resilient Forests workstreams:
Resilient Forests News
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