Protecting and Enhancing Forest Soil Health. Tools for forest advisors
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SOILL-Startup Thematic Engagement Event 'Protecting and Enhancing Forest Soil Health, Tools for forest advisors' is hosted at FOREXT annual conference on 1-2 October 2025, in Kaunas, Lithuania. The event takes place at Kaunas Hotel, Laisvės Al. 79,Kaunas, Lithuania in a hybrid (online & in-person) format. You can sign up for participating in person by 17 September 2025.
The event is organised by SOILL-Startup's European Forest Institute and hosted by the Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service (LAAS).
The meeting brings together members from across Europe to exchange knowledge, explore real-world practices, and strengthen partnerships. This year’s event will address a topic of high importance for forest advisors: forest resilience. The program will feature two dedicated sessions exploring their critical roles and sharing best practices and tool for forest advisors.
The session Protecting and Enhancing Forest Soil Health, will introduce the EU Soil Mission and highlight its relevance for forest advisors, demonstrate the Soil Hub as a practical tool to support advisory services, share experiences and lessons learned from Living Labs, and present best practices in forest soil management and advisory approaches from relevant projects.
Attendees of the morning session are also welcome to join the afternoon session, Forest Silviculture as a key driver for forest resilience, will explore the role of biodiversity in building resilient forest ecosystems, present integrative forest management approaches, and showcase case studies on effective silvicultural advisory practices.
The meeting will end on 2 October with a field trip to Dubrava Arboretum and the Dubrava Strict Nature Reserve.
Who should attend?
The event welcomes forest advisors, extension organizations (including universities, private companies, and research institutes) engaged in providing advice and support to forest practitioners. Participation is also open to experts with an interest in soil health and forest resilience.
*All times in the agenda are UTC +3, Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) - Local time in Lithuania.
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9:00-9:10 | Opening remarks and program presentation
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1 Oct | 9:10 - 13:00 | Session 1: Protecting and Enhancing Forest Soil Health. Tools for forest advisors
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9:10 - 10:30 Presentation 1. Engaging stakeholders in Soil Health. Mission Soil Living Labs and SOILL-Startup
Inazio Martínez de Arano, EFI & SOILL-StartupPresentation 2. Conservation and improvement of forest soil health. What the science can tell us
Anne Ackerman, EFI & HoliSoils projectPresentation 3. Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Drained Peatlands Under Different Land Uses Versus Pristine Peatlands
Čiuldienė Dovilė, Vigricas Egidijus, Armolaitis Kęstutis
Institute of Forestry, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break 11:00 - 11:55 Best practices in soil advisory
- SOILL Hub as a tool for advisory
Inazio Martinez de Arano, EFI
- SOILL living lab experience, GOV4ALL project
Tristano Bachetti De Gregoris, SAE Innova
- SOILL living lab experience, IBERSOILL project
David Miguel Ribeiro Vieira Santos, Food for Sustainability
- Open Discussion
- HoliSoils toolkit for forest practioners
- NBSOIL Academy for soil advisors, NBSOIL project
11:55 - 13:00 Soil advisory tools
- HoliSoils toolkit for forest practioners
Anne Ackerman, EFI
- NBSOIL Academy for soil advisors, NBSOIL project
Javier Montellano López, REVOLVE
- Open Discussion
- SOILL Hub as a tool for advisory
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13:00 - 14:00 | Lunch Break
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Online attendees will be invited to stay connected to join the afternoon session.
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14:00 - 17:00 | Session 2: Silviculture as a key driver of forest resilience
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Short presentations on best silvicultural advisory practices and tools for forest resilience.
- Norway spruce health and vulnerability in Lithuania - wind, decay and Lps Typographus as the main drivers,
Armoška Emilis, Žemaitis Povilas, Kulbokas Gintaras - Decision Support Tools development for Integrative Forest Management,
LUKE - Forest Sharing,
Bluebiloba - WoodsApp,
Bitapps
Wrapping up: Pan-European Forest Risk Facility (FoRISK), EFI
14:00 - 14:20 - Integrative Forest Management living labs, TRANSFORMIT project
Dijana Vuletić, Croatian Forest Research Institute
14:20 - 14:35 - Adapting Integrative Forest Management to the Mediterranean context through the living lab approach, Centre de la Propietat Forestal – Catalonia
Teresa Baiges Zapater, CPF
14:35 - 14:50 - Dzukija National Park Living Lab for forest restoration, Eco2adapt project
14:50 - 15:00 Open Discussion 15:00 - 15:30 Coffee Break 15:30 - 15:45 - Phytosanitary Status of Lithuanian Forests
Kęstutis Grigaliūnas, Forest Sanitary Protection Department of the State Forest Service
15:45 - 16:00 - Norway spruce health and vulnerability in Lithuania - wind, decay and Lps Typographus as the main drivers
Armoška Emilis, Žemaitis Povilas, Kulbokas Gintaras, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry
16:00 16:30 Apps and tools to support forest management 16:00 - 16:10 - Decision Support Tools development for Integrative Forest Management
Adriano Mazziotta, LUKE
16:10 - 16:20 - Forest Sharing, enhancing sustainable and shared forest management
Guido Milazzo, Bluebiloba
16:20 - 16:30 - WoodsApp, reaching and activating scattered forest owners through digital channels
Jarmo Oittinen, Bitapps
16:30 - 17:15 Wrap-up Session 16:30 - 16:45 - Pan-European Forest Risk Facility (FoRISK)
Silvia Abruscato, EFI (online)
16:45 - 17:15 - Final discussion and future topics
- Norway spruce health and vulnerability in Lithuania - wind, decay and Lps Typographus as the main drivers,
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2 Oct | Site visit
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8:30 Departure from hotel 9:00 - 10:00 Visit the Dubrava Arboretum to see native and non-native tree species. 10:00 - 10:10 Bus ride to the Dubrava Strict Nature Reserve. 10:10 - 12:00 Visit to the Dubrava Strict Nature Reserve, an area where no forest management has been done.
- What regrows after a spruce stand dies?
- Experimental plots used for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
12:00 - 13:00 Lunch & Discussion and wrap-up 13:00 - 14:00 Return to the hotel
