The named oaks of Savernake are quietly going about their business of falling to pieces (a bit like me) which is hardly surprising considering their age. Oaks have a tendency to do this, shedding limbs in stormy weather and usually in the summer when the greatest weight is on the limbs with leaves and acorns. I’ve mentioned it in earlier articles which also lend context to this.
The Braydon Oak is the latest to suffer that I know of-it losing two major limbs this summer which is something I predicted might happen; I’m no genius-it was obvious.
In 2022 the government created a paper called ‘Keepers of Time’ which I discovered whilst doing some research into tree protection in the UK. It seemed to suggest that it is often best to leave veteran trees to their own devices, but also that it is negligent not to care for them if preventative measures could be employed to prolong the trees life. As an ex-tree surgeon this is something I’d often advocate, and not just because it was good for business.
Armed with my journalistic discovery and combined with Forestry England’s (Forestry Commission) own guidelines I tried to ask Forestry England what they were doing to look after the veteran oaks in Savernake.
In my opinion, it isn’t really enough and seems to consist of clearing space around the oaks in what is known as a ‘halo’, presumably to prevent competition for resources from scrub. Anyway, Forestry England didn’t seem that keen to communicate with me, I suppose I might be a bit annoying with my enthusiasm for trees and distain for leaflets and bureaucracy.
I tried to make a complaint, aimed at the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, presuming that I had a case on conservation grounds, but it turns out that I don’t.
My complaint was closed after a couple of months of investigation; ‘no non-conformities against the standard requirements were identified’, and apparently no further communication on the matter from me is encouraged-at least not by the people I asked to look into it.
My own conclusion is that the ‘standard requirements’ are a bit lax if the owners of accredited bodies can allow the most important trees in England and possibly Europe to fall apart.
I am a tree surgeon, I am unimportant, and my opinions are based on my experience, but I predict that further large limbs and whole trees will fall, leaving the population of named oaks in Savernake depleted and damaged. I do think preventative measures would help-namely in the form of weight reduction, pruning and pollarding, but what I think is inconsequential.
Go and see the King of Limbs in Savernake, don’t stand too close on a stormy day but do enjoy it. I might be wrong, but I think it’ll be gone soon.
As for me?
I tried to do something about the trees, and I failed, so I’ll concentrate on my own arboretum and plant plenty of stuff for the future, which will be a lot more satisfying than fighting an uphill battle I never really had a hope of winning.
When I go back to Norway and an enthusiastic, motivated forester says to me, ‘you have great knowledge of tree management in the UK’, which is something they’ve said of our country in the past, I think I’ll just keep quiet. Knowledge is nothing without action and as far as I’m concerned, I’ve wasted time on the impossibility of being taken seriously, time that could be better employed growing my own trees.