The Technical Services Unit (TSU) provides technical and environmental services to a broad range of customers across the UK. We work on many of the research programmes within Forest Research as well as with a number of customers throughout the Forestry Commission and several external bodies.

The TSU provide services including:

• Planning, establishing, laying out, maintenance and recording of experiments;
• Forest surveys (including production, attribute, evaluation, stocking and aerial photo interpretation surveys).
• Plant health assessments (including Phytophthora, Chalara, Acute Oak Decline, Dothistroma);
• Ecological Surveys (including National Vegetation Classification, Environmental Site Classification and habitat surveys);
• Data collection, interpretation and presentation;
• Forest nursery skills (allied to Forest Research’s seed and tree breeding and improvement work);

Our staff are located at field stations throughout England, Wales and Scotland and offer a GB wide service. Our team use a full range of IT, GIS, GPS and portable data logging equipment.

The TSU also manage Headley Experimental Enclosure, a site of 4hectares that is flat, secure, has irrigation, power and facilities, and is certified by the Pesticide Safety Directorate. It is used for experimental work, including pesticide and fungicide trials, inoculation experiments, holds genetic material collections, investigating the interaction between earth works and short rotation forestry and the impact of air spades on tree growth. The Headley Enclosure is available for use with others by agreement.

Contact

For further information contact:

for work in Scotland: Alistair Macleod

for work in North Wales and England (East Anglia, the Midlands and up to Scotland): Liz Richardson

for work in South Wales, the rest of England and the Headley Experimental Enclosure: Mark Oram