After the Expert Panel on Deposition and the Meeting of QA/QC Working Group in 2007 further international meeting took place in Hungary in connection with the European intensive monitoring on forest health.

In the framework of ICP-Forests and FutMon (Life+) project and with the contribution of CEAM (Spain), WSL (Switzerland), CAO and Forest Research Institute (both Hungary) the 10th UNECE/ICP Forests & FutMon Intercalibration Course on the Assessment of Ozone Visible Injury was held in Budapest in September 21-24 2009.

During the last decade impacts of ozone have become an issue of concern in Europe. Although ozone pollution leaves no elemental residue that can be detected by analytical techniques, even so the visible injury on needles and leaves as a result of oxidative stress is easily detectable. Observation of typical symptoms on above ground plant parts in the field has turned out to be a valuable tool for the assessment of the impact of ambient ozone exposures.

The organizer and the host of the meeting held in the Centre Station of Forest Research Institute in Budapest was dr. Judit Sitkey who is the Hungarian representative as well.

The meeting was opened by Tamás Ali (Deputy Director General, Central Agricultural Office Forestry Directorate) and by Marcus Schaub (Chairman of the Expert Panel, WSL). The 28 participants represented 14 countries (Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland).

On the first two days of the meeting several lectures were given by the participants about the experiences gained by the field assessments. For better identification of the symptoms the participants carried out exercises on photos and samples of real plants.

In the field program one of the ICP-Forests Level II plots in Mátra Mountains (M01 – beech) was presented, then the participants assessed the symptoms caused by ozone on trees and shrubs using a 300 m long transect on a near forest edge.
On the study tour Zoltán Gencsi (Director, Hortobágy Non-profit Company for Nature Conservation and Gene Preservation) showed the traditional Hungarian farm animals in the puszta, the riding skills of horsemen and the unique landscape of Hortobágy. In the afternoon the Csórrét watershed research area was presented by Miklós Manninger (Forest Research Institute) and Judit Sitkey.