Observatree volunteer’s role in helping to develop the new TreeAlert Report Dashboard

TreeAlert is Britain’s official system for reporting tree pests and pathogens (Tree Check is used across Ireland). It was started in 2013 to enable the reporting of Chalara dieback of ash which had just been found within the UK. The Observatree project began around the same time and our volunteers have always used TreeAlert to report tree health concerns.

TreeAlert was initially launched as a mobile phone app, but at the time, the quality of data captured by the system was often quite poor and it was relaunched in 2015 as a web-based service. High quality information is important for TreeAlert, as any enquiries relating to tree pests or pathogens are reviewed by tree health diagnosticians within Forest Research who will attempt to diagnose the cause of the ill-health of a tree, based upon the information and photos provided. The more information and the better quality the images, the easier this task is to complete.

In recent years, the TreeAlert system has continued to evolve and expand. New functionality has been added and the system now allows for the reporting of some abiotic damage to trees, and trees that appear to be free of any signs of pests or pathogens. These ‘healthy’ trees provide important information on where and when pests or diseases are thought to be absent, or when individual trees show a lower susceptibility to them.

Observatree volunteers are also able use this healthy tree mechanism as part of a Host of the Month tree health reporting, or in response to a call to action, such as the recent request for our Observatree volunteers to support surveillance of plane lace bug following its recent discovery in London. Observatree volunteers also monitor the health of their Sentinel trees through TreeAlert, where we can track changes to the health of individual trees over time. It is perhaps not surprising that Observatree volunteers are some of the main users of TreeAlert (in the last year, around a quarter of TreeAlert reports came from Observatree volunteers) and have been called upon to test some of the latest TreeAlert developments before they are made available to other users.  Initial feedback from Observatree volunteers has led to improvements and they continue to be an important TreeAlert user group.

In addition to the data submission element of TreeAlert, there is a significant ‘behind the scenes’ component that is used by the diagnosticians and when necessary, tree and plant health inspectors from organisations across Britain. But until recently, data flow was predominantly in one direction, with users only able to view their own tree health data submitted. To develop this, a new Report Dashboard was launched last the summer that allows registered users to search some of the wider TreeAlert data submitted by others. This new feature enables users to filter the data to show information on a particular species of host tree, a pest or pathogen, or via a postcode search, with the results displayed in a list, map or a chart. A few Observatree volunteers were given early access to the Report Dashboard, and some are now using it to examine other tree health reports submitted within their region, thus informing their own survey activities.

Further developments of the TreeAlert system are in discussion – and the valuable thoughts and feedback from Observatree volunteers on those developments as and when they happen, will continue to help refine and shape the software as it grows.