Dear Colleagues;

1) first of all, sorry for eventual cross-posting as this message will apparently go to several mailing lists;

2) with this message we (Jan Stenlid & myself) would like to announce that preparations have already been initiated to organize IUFRO Working Party 7.02.01 “Root & Stem Rots” Conference, in conjunction with the “4^th International Elm Conference”, as well as the  Conference entitled “Recent Advances in Research on Ash Dieback & Dutch Elm Disease (EC LIFE+ Nature)”;

3) the EVENT is planned to cover not only above-mentioned topics, but also aspects of tree breeding for resistance & propagation, entomology, biodiversity and related social sciences;

4) provisional schedule:

- Sunday, August 26^th, arrival, accommodation in Uppsala hotels, and reception at our campus (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Ultuna); as the campus is located about 15-20 min bus travel from the central Uppsala, one option for accommodation could be http://www.sunnerstaherrgard.se/ which is within the 10-15 min walking distance to the conference venue (along a river with beautiful scenery); … and there you will get value for money; please note that it is not a big hotel, so number of places is limited, and there are numerous international events at our campus;

- August 26 – 27^th, scientific sessions at Campus Ultuna;

- August 28^th, half-day field excursion & travel by bus to Nynäshamn harbour, and then taking ferry to Visby, Gotland Island (http://www.destinationgotland.se/en/ferry/ ; upon arrival, individual accommodation and eventual sightseeing in one of the most beautiful towns in the world is up to you; please note that buses, ferry, and (most of) lunches and coffee breaks will be organized centrally from the budget of the EVENT;

- August 29^th, scientific sessions at the conference centre in Visby;

- August 30^th, half-day scientific sessions and then field excursion across the Island of Gotland;

- Saturday, September 1^st, departure, either from Visby airport (many flights to Stockholm Arlanda airport with excellent international connections, duration approx. 50 min.), or by the ferry back to the mainland Nynäshamn harbour with good bus/train connections to Stockholm Arlanda airport; http://www.destinationgotland.se/en/ferry/timetable-and-prices/timetable/bus-and-train-connections/ );

5) IN CASE YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED TO PARTICIPATE; PLEASE BOOK THOSE DATES IN YOUR CALENDER; AND SEND ME A SHORT NOTE INDICATING THE INTEREST (not binding) BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2017; we need this for planning reasons, as the logistics of this EVENT appears to be rather complex;

6) in such case you will be included into the mailing list for future related communications to come in early 2018;

7) funding for reimbursement for several invited keynote speakers has been already secured, as well as the partial financial support for conference logistic/venues; yet, we are continuously working for obtaining more support in order to keep registration fee possibly low;

8) as recently discussed with Alfas Pliura, Editor in Chief of international scientific journal Baltic Forestry (WoS Impact Factor above 0.6 and constantly growing, free open access), submissions from this Conference to BF will be welcome and subjected for peer review process, as full research articles, reviews, short communications, and selected abstracts (upon publication, also indexed in WoS); please note that the material must contain original data, must be unpublished, and that the deadline for submission is 2^nd of September 2018; so in case of interest, please do setting up and plan writing of the material in good order;

9) i will be in touch with more details in January 2018;

kind regards, and looking forwards to meet you in Sweden;

Rimvys Vasaitis & Jan Stenlid