Forest health

Duration

42h Th, 8h Pr, 14h FT

Number of credits

Lecturer

Hugues Claessens, Frédéric Francis, Ludivine Lassois, Sébastien Massart

Coordinator

Hugues Claessens

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The course concerns Forest health and its management. It contains different parts :
- Forest ecosystems resilience and health - Abiotic causes of decline - Human causes of decline - Pests and diseases - Diagnosis of weakened trees - Forest health survey - Forest health management

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

At the end of the course the student will be capable of:
- Identifying abiotic, biotic and human risks in forestry production in temperate forests
- Diagnosing declining trees
- Identifying the main forest pests and pathogens
- Diagnosing declining populations
- Understanding the importance of a surveillance network for forest health
- Identifying the parties involved and the relevant decisions in case of sanitary crisis

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Participation to this course requires that the student be capable of identifying species and forestry stations in the field.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

- lectures
- field work (tree health assessment, pests and disease sampling)
- laboratory (insects and disease identification)
- personnal work

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Supporting slides will be provided during the course in pdf format. They will also be available via the intranet of the ULg.

Recommended or required readings

There are at present no course scripts.
The following documents will allow to gain further knowledge. They are strongly advised but not mandatory. They are available in the library or on internet.

- Nageleisen L.M., Piou D., Saintonge F.X., Riou-Nivert P. (2010) - La santé des forêts : Maladies, Insectes, accidents climatiques. Diagnostic et prévention. - DSF/IDF.
- Gauquelin X (2011) - Guide de gestion des forêts en crise sanitaire. - ONF / IDF (http://www.foretpriveefrancaise.com/guide-de-gestion-des-forets-en-crise-sanitaire-259183.html ou http://draaf.bourgogne.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Guide_de_gestion_des_forets_en_crise_sanitaire_cle4d6979.pdf)
- Abras S., Fassotte C., Chandelier A., Cavelier M. (2009) - Guide visuel des principales maladies et ravageurs des essences ligneuses des milieux rivulaires. - DGRNE et CRAW. (http://phytorive.cra.wallonie.be/page/pdf/guide.pdf)

Assessment methods and criteria

The assessment is based on :
- defense of the personnal work (30%, during the course)
- laboratory report (10%, during the course)
- oral examination based on a study case in its context (identification of the health problem, management solutions,...) : 60 %, during the session.
If the note of the oral examination is less than 10/20, global note is this of the exam.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Contacts

Hugues Claessens (coordinator)
Francis Frédéric
Lassois Ludivine
Massart sébastien
University of Liege - Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech 2, Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux (Belgium) http://www.gembloux.ulg.ac.be/gf