Articles in ‘Trees of Britain’
November 27th, 2009
The Guardian has an editorial this week praising the planting of trees, inspired by a scientific study for the Forestry Commission, calling for the mass planting of trees as a reliable and cheap way of soaking up carbon dioxide.
If Britain planted 23,200 hectares of woodland a year for the next 40 years, this country’s forests could soak up 10% of predicted emissions. That might sound like a lot of trees, but even at this rate woodland would cover only 16% of the land, far below the European average. The way this is done matters: no one wants to see a repeat of the endless dark lines of Sitka spruce which harmed the spirit of Ennerdale, in the Lake District, or drained the life from the peat soil of the Flow Country in Caithness. Read
Climate change in the UK, Trees of Britain, Woodland in the UK | Tags: soaking up carbon dioxide|
September 13th, 2009
Some quarters, particularly the forestry sector, are reacting with indignation and protest. In these times of climate change, it is argued, surely woodlands should be preserved, not eliminated. But what the RSPB are doing in Farnham, Surrey, by felling the conifer plantations, is restoring heathland, an increasingly rare habitat in Britain. What’s more, they are lobbying the government to clear more non-native conifers, a move that would favour biodiversity and species such as the nightjar, woodlark, sand lizard and adder, which thrive in more open shrubby areas.
As project manager Mike Coates succinctly puts it, “It should be the right tree in the right place. A field of barley is a field of grass, but it’s not a meadow; it’s a crop. In the same way, these are areas of land dominated by trees, but they are not woods, they are crops.” Photograph: Graham Turner Guardian
Conservation issues in the UK, Trees of Britain, Woodland in the UK | Tags: heath restoration, increasing biodiversity in Britain, RSPB Farnham reserve, RSPB habitat restoration, where to see nightjars|
July 22nd, 2009
The National Trust is embarking on a comprehensive survey to identify previously unrecorded ancient trees on its land. The NT’s land holdings are huge – they include more than 25,000 hectares of woodland, 200,000 hectares of farmland and 135 landscape and deer parks.As many as 40,000 trees are to be classified. Read the rest of this entry
Flora of Britain, Trees of Britain | Tags: Ancient trees of Britain, Historic trees of Britain, How many ancient trees are there in Britain?, Monumental trees of Britain, William Wordsworth's yew|
July 13th, 2009
Anyone out of the country that week in October came back to find an altered landscape. An estimated 15 million trees had been toppled, mainly in southern England, which bore the brunt of the hurricane-force winds. The north of Britain is used to ferocious winds, but the south hadn’t experienced anything like it for nearly 300 years. The result was a large population of very tall, old trees that had never been tested by such severe weather conditions. Read the rest of this entry
Natural disasters in Britain, Trees of Britain, Weather and climate | Tags: great storm of 1987, hurricanes in Britain, natural disasters in UK, trees damaged by storm|
June 26th, 2009
The Fortingall Yew is generally considered as the oldest tree in Britain. Like many yews, it stands in a churchyard. Yews were sacred for the Celts, and the Christian church often found it expedient to take over these existing sacred sites for churches. This oldest of yews is the village of Fortingall in Perthshire. Recent tests suggest the tree is some 2,000 years old, rather younger than the 5,000 years claimed by some, but still probably one of the oldest trees in Northern Europe. The yew was vandalised for tourist trinkets in the 19th century, and its once massive girths is now split into several trunks, giving the impression of several smaller trees.
Flora of Britain, Nature trivia about Britain, Scotland, Trees of Britain | Tags: ancient trees of Scotland, Perthshire, Scottish yew trees, Taxus baccata in Britain, The Fortingall Yew, The oldest tree in Scotland, yews in Britain, Yews in churchyards|
The Co-op is further expanding its 
There are now some excellent landscape blogs covering Britain. Here are a few:
With more and more people wanting to grow their own fruit and vegetables, the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners have over 100,000 people on their waiting lists. The National Trust have responded to this demand by allocating land for “super allotments” or community farms. In return for a monthly fee, members will decide what should be grown, and have the opportunity to work on the farms, receiving a share of the produce. 
A new measure to help the rapidly declining British eel population will oblige owners of weirs and locks to install bypasses, allowing the fish to swim up and down stream unhindered. See 
