The first workshop of the PHYTO-THREATS project was held at APHA in York on October 6th. The project aims to address the risks to UK forest and woodland ecosystems from Phytophthora by examining the distribution and diversity of Phytophthoras in UK plant nursery systems. It also aims to provide the evidence base for the development of a set of enhanced nursery ‘best practice’ accreditation criteria to mitigate risk of further Phytophthora introduction and spread.

PHYTO-THREATS is a collaborative research project involving seven participating institutions from across Britain and is funded by the Living With Environmental Change partnership through the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Initiative. It will run from April 2016 till the end of March 2019.

In October 2017, Phyto-threats will hold a second stakeholder workshop which will focus on
identifying effective management options to underpin a UK nursery accreditation scheme, in light of
findings from the first 18 months of the project. Information on this workshop will be circulated next
summer.