This isn’t an immediately ‘local’ news item, but given the importance and prominence of some of the great ancient oaks of Savernake forest, it’s a tale to tell. This relates to a 450-year-old oak in Whitewebbs Wood, Enfield. It hasn’t been ‘felled’, more pollarded, though I am guessing that is because someone didn’t get to finish the job before being stopped.
I’ve got loads to say, but I don’t really know all the facts yet. Apparently, it was ‘dead’ and definitely ‘not dead’ depending on which expert is being quoted, it’s hard to know from the photos, but I’m inclined to believe the latter, probably because I want to.
The good news, from what I can see, is that the heavily reduced remains might recover, despite the drastic nature of the pruning. As I’ve said before, quoting the Cathedral Oak in Savernake, this form of tree maintenance can help in the long run-provided it isn’t too severe.
Why write about this in Marlborough News? Well, it’s relevant across the UK. I like to harp on about Norway, but only because the Norwegians are better than us-they look after their trees with blanket protection of oaks. Not an actual blanket, that wouldn’t help at all, but a law that says all oaks are not to be interfered with outside of forests. This might not have saved the Enfield Oak but would be helpful for the thousands of other unprotected trees in the UK.
I took photos of roadside oaks, mature beech in fields and on the downland behind Marlborough and of trees in parks, council land, private gardens and other locations.
Mostly-unless separate preservation orders, conservation areas or other specific protection is in place-these are perfectly legal to fell or mutilate (within various other legal parameters).
I wrote to King Charles. I wrote to the Woodland Trust and to the Forestry Commission. They said stuff, but it wasn’t helpful.
A local council was more useful, I won’t say which one.
“Yes, our trees do need more protection,” the lady said, “the problem is that it takes a week to put on one Tree Preservation Order and longer still to designate a Conservation Area.”
Successive governments have pretended to care. The last Conservative Government made a paper about it. The Woodland Trust and the Forestry Commission quote it with words in lovely brochures about their policy to protect veteran trees.
I don’t think their words or King Charles ‘noting’ my concerns is enough.
If the Enfield Oak had been protected as a matter of course, as a default, it might not have been so harshly treated.
I don’t know all the facts of that case, proper journalists are still looking into what happened and it might be that nothing was ever amiss, that it was dying, that it was dealt with legally and properly and there is ‘nothing to see here, please move on’.
But it reminds me of my notion that mature trees deserve more than we give them, that the people who are around today won’t be in 450 years. Those people aren’t as important as they might think they are.
And as for the trees themselves?
They don’t assume they are important, that they matter, they just are, and they do.
I lost most of the photos I took to emphasise my point, but there are a couple that evaded my clumsiness with the ethernet, oaks and beech which quietly let me capture their loveliness.
I hope they are all still there long after me, including the Enfield Oak.
David Oliver
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