Reflecting on My First Six Months as a Patsy Wood Scholar
The role has far surpassed my expectations. Working with Future Trees Trust, I’ve been involved in a variety of projects that align with my interests and provide real-world forestry experience. A significant part of my time has been dedicated to collecting data across the UK – measuring trees for the Supersizing Broadleaves project and birch and sycamore progeny trials. We also planted two national tolerant ash archives this year. Whilst this took a lot of preparation and planning, to see just under 5000 (hopefully) dieback tolerant trees in the ground, was hugely satisfying. This work brings a lot of hope to the future of the species in the UK, so it was an honour to be involved with.
A standout experience was selecting ‘plus trees’ in the Lake District, within my first month. At the start of 2025, we then worked with climbers to collect graft wood from these trees, which is a process I thoroughly enjoyed. Beyond fieldwork, I’ve been responsible for inputting the data we’ve gathered, ensuring its accuracy for future analysis and application. I also produced the sycamore progeny trial annual report, exercising data analysis and report writing skills.
