Installing a Tree Growth Monitoring Station

The Silk Wood Community Planting Project team were recently joined by Climate Scientists from Forest Research, the research agency of the Forestry Commission, to install a Tree Growth Monitoring Station at the Silk Wood Community Planting Project site.

This solar-powered station is equipped with pivot auto-dendrometers, remote sensors which will measure the stem growth of five of the newly planted rowan saplings every 10 mins. Along with meteorological readings including light, temperature and humidity, the data will be uploaded to the cloud every 3 hours.

This will give researchers real time information that can help monitor growth throughout the seasons and help inform how extreme events such as after a drought, heatwave, or after a late frost, can affect tree growth.

This is one of five similar stations throughout the UK, but is the first to measure saplings with small diameter stems. We're excited that the project is contributing towards scientific research and can help increase knowledge around tree growth and climate change.

Read our other blogs about the Silk Wood Community Planting Project here...

Find out more about the work of Forest Research at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/