Protecting Europe’s forests from invasive pests requires new approaches to monitoring and early detection. The EU-funded FORSAID project is developing innovative technologies to support forest health, helping researchers and practitioners detect pest outbreaks more efficiently.

On 4 and 5 June 2026, FORSAID held its first in-person demonstration and training workshop for forest stakeholders in Italy. Hosted in the Visdende Valley (Belluno, Eastern Alps), the two-day event brought together more than 20 researchers, plant protection specialists, forestry professionals and technicians from Italy and Slovenia for two full days of hands-on showcases, field trials and knowledge exchange.

Titled “Automation in detection and monitoring of forest pests: Automatic traps and insect identification”, the event was jointly organised by the FORSAID project, the IPS Interreg Italy-Austria project and the FO.RESTA.IT regional project. Together, the three initiatives showcased a range of innovative solutions for forest pest detection, monitoring and management, highlighting their potential to strengthen forest protection efforts and support local monitoring programmes.

Тhe University of Padua's (UNIPD) Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE) played a key role in coordinating the demonstrations and training activities on behalf of FORSAID. In turn, IPS presented sustainable ways to reduce the impact of the Norway spruce bark beetle and pine weevil attacks in Alpine forests, which is what the project’s objective entails. Last but not least, FO.RESTA.IT, showcased its expertise in the training of researchers and field operators working on the monitoring and management of Norway spruce bark beetle outbreaks. The event was co-organised with Agridinamica, an Italian company active in agricultural and forestry innovation.

The first day focused on solutions developed within FORSAID. Project coordinator Andrea Battisti (UNIPD) introduced the project and its vision for improving forest pest surveillance across Europe. Participants were then divided into English- and Italian-speaking groups to allow for hands-on demonstrations in the field.

His colleague Giuseppe Morgante presented Trapview’s automated bark beetle traps that allow for detection and reaction in remote settings, i.e. real-time monitoring of Norway spruce bark beetles. Giacomo Cavaletto and Davide Rassati (also from UNIPD) subsequently demonstrated a range of innovative trapping systems for wood-boring beetles from the families Buprestidae and Cerambycidae, including multi-colored panel traps built to attract different target species.

One of the highlights of the day was the showcase of the Entomoscope, a low-cost photomicroscope adapted for FORSAID by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Andrea Beltramini and Andree Cappellari (UNIPD) walked participants through how the device automatically identifies potentially harmful species and discussed its prospective use for supporting plant protection organisations.

Considerable interest in the resulting discussions was afforded to how these technologies could be integrated into local monitoring programmes and forest protection activities. Building off on this, proceedings concluded with participants completing a questionnaire by the European Institute of Planted Forest (IEFC) assessing the accessibility, costs, performance and practical potential of each of the presented innovations.

The second day turned the attention towards the IPS and FO.RESTA.IT projects, presented by Massimo Faccoli (UNIPD) and Davide Crestani (Agridinamica). Their focus - ground detection and surveillance as well as the increased involvement of citizen scientists, both topics of significance in the domain of forest health monitoring.

Accompanying field activities aimed to present the push-pull method through demonstrations of ongoing experiments. The approach makes use of verbenone to repel bark beetles from valuable trees (“push”) while deploying a pheromone to draw insects toward the designated trap logs (“pull”). The Agridinamica team also showed how different products prevent bark beetles from attacking trees by peeling back the bark on treated logs and checking for beetle activity. Many attendees were especially curious about products made from natural plant extracts in this context.

Bark beetles and wood-boring insects represent one of the most serious threats to forest health across Europe due to climate change and accelerating outbreak cycles. Early and accurate detection is therefore critical.

FORSAID is working to develop affordable, automated technologies that can be embedded into routine surveillance programmes, giving forestry managers faster and sharper observation of where infestations are developing and how they are spreading. This is a vision shared by IPS and FO.RESTA.IT in their own activities.

The workshop proved itself to be a key milestone in this effort, as it marked the first time these tools have been demonstrated in a real-world forest setting to the practitioners who would ultimately use them. Moreover, the feedback gathered through the aforementioned questionnaire will directly inform how the technologies are refined and adapted for broader deployment.

All in all, with more than 20 participants across two days, the event offered a space for collectively imagining what smarter forest surveillance could look like in practice and how to give life to that aspiration.