 Our work to understand interactions between pests, diseases, environments and humans is led by a group of world leading scientists who will address these issues. In September 2016 we brought together the project team and others involved in management of trees in Epping Forest. In this video we reflect on how people involved in developing strategies for management can be put in conversation with oak trees. I think we've set ourselves a very tricky task in trying to work with non-humans and I think that's something that we certainly need to do some more work on in trying to find ways of working with hot non-humans as well as trying to consider what sort of role those non-humans might have in a cutote decline. I think previously there's been a big focus on the human aspects of tree health in particular kind of management and adaptation and ideas of resilience and actually that we need to include the non-human communities within that work and so we've been able to draw on existing social science, arts and humanities research to really sort of extend that across these two days where we've been on-site in Epping Forest meeting their head of conservation, their biodiversity officer, hearing about some of their tree management problems but actually spending time with trees and watching scientists running up to a tree to find an agrylus beetle hole or they see a bleeding legion on an oak tree for example is it's fascinating for us as social scientists becoming interdisciplinary scholars basically and then then understanding some of the questions that we want to ask as well so I think it's been great from that idea of working in the borderlands of our disciplines. I think we've had a real insight into the way that the kind of questions that we want to ask about the role of non-humans in a cutote decline and the role of borderlands meshes really well with some of the more kind of hard science work packages who are trying to think about the context for a cutote decline and what's actually happening around a tree which is showing symptoms. It's been really quite exciting to build on each other's knowledge and insights in the conversations we've had yesterday and today as well and previously already in the project but the participatory exercises kind of brought it even more to the front to explore each other's language a little bit and also being able to ask what we call silly questions. One thing that we've spoken quite a bit about has been time and temporality and the importance of understanding the cultural history of trees and the stories and lives that they might be embedded in and where that's going next. And yesterday with the woodworker coming also to talk a little bit about woodturning and the bowls he had produced out of different woods it was very nice and to see that connectedness I guess between the human and the non-human but also the science knowledge interface with the experiential knowledge interface and see the enrichment of bringing those two kind of knowledges to the table I thought it was very special. One thing that I was kind of worried about but only because these are the sorts of things you might worry about as an organiser is were people going to talk to each other were they going to be open and generous enough to do this kind of thing so spend their sort of, I don't know, scientist mode and kind of become tree enthusiasts for a couple of days and it's been an overwhelming experience people have been 100% into it we've even created plays people have asked silly questions it's just been fantastic. It will go out at 10 past six in the morning out into the woods and to listen to what's happening as dawn comes One of the highlights for me actually was this morning where I guess the group had become so comfortable with each other that we were, when we asked them to basically present a particular methodology that they were going to be using in their work in, let's say, literally a snapshot and we just gave them pretty much five minutes to prepare and sort of stand up in front of the group and present that in quite an interactive way that people were happy to do that, comfortable to do that but also it was just so really interesting to hear about those different methods that we will be employing or have already been employing within the project I'm just excited to see those results kind of also merge within the analysis phase of the purpose project and I think this workshop grounded us in terms of taking that forwards really in a collaborative way So within our purpose project and within the proposal itself and actually I think within the call documents for this grant it was about a change of business as usual basically that we need to find new ways of working and so for us it's sort of about the non-human this idea of working in borderlands but actually the last two days show to me and prove to me that we are, it is no longer business as usual we are doing things very differently and to spend time with trees I think has been fundamental to that Yeah, I think it brings you back to what this is all about to actually be with the trees, to reaffirm for ourselves what it is that's important for us about trees and why we should be addressing this issue