Since I wrote the article on the veteran oaks of Savernake Forest I’m keen to bring you news of an update.
Keen? yes, of course I am, it would be lovely to report that the Forestry Commission have done something beyond sending me an e-mail asking where my original e-mail went, (for the record, I don’t know), but they haven’t.
Maybe they’re busy behind the scenes, so I’ll give them the benefit.
The Marquess of Ailesbury – the owner of the trees I talked about- pointed out that I hadn’t spoken with him prior to the other thing I wrote, so I’m meeting him next week after he has dealt with bereavement in the family. It’ll be interesting to talk with him.
Despite not much happening in terms of developments to do with the care of Savernake’s oaks, this isn’t entirely a story about nothing, because I’ve had an idea. Actually, it’s not quite an idea-more of a notion…
The catchment area of Marlborough.news was never made clear to me when I wrote the last article and I know that it includes the villages surrounding the town and almost certainly not Harstad, Tromso and Lyngen in the Arctic Circle.
But I need it to and I also have to include southern Norway.
The reason I need to expand our boundaries?
Well, something slightly pleasing happened and it involved me, (from Marlborough) and oak trees (sort of related to Savernake) and if it’s not too tenuous a link read on…
I travelled on various aeroplanes, ferries and buses to the above places discovering along the way, and to my acute surprise (ahem), that the Norwegians are much better at public transport than us. Conveniently I’m ignoring my carbon footprint and won’t bother trying to justify the use of fossil fuels to take me north except to say that the plane was headed that way anyway.
I was travelling to look for the most northerly oak tree in the world, something I’ve been boasting about since returning with the happy news that I think I found it (69.744’N in fact). Anyway, having done so I realised that the people I met who helped me on this quest were passionate, enthusiastic and proud of their trees, particularly oaks. I too have always been similarly inspired by the trees in and around Marlborough and despite cutting down a few, have always done my best to help look after the older ones.
There are quite a number of note alongside the famous named oaks; the beeches and sweet chestnuts in Savernake, the 1700 year old yew in Alton Priors and the huge Plane tree at Chilton Foliat to name just a few. There are many more, often unnoticed in hedgerows and field boundaries all around our town and its catchment.
In Norway they have a programme for the protection of veteran trees and oaks in particular. They see them (quite rightly) as important wildlife habitats. Hollow, damaged and partially diseased veteran trees provide a home for numerous fungi, beetles and fauna of all types and the trees themselves are a living history of great importance.
Like Savernake, they also have very mature oaks and in common with our local forest some of their veteran trees are up to 1,000 years old. So, as well as writing to King Charles and the Forestry Commission I emailed the Norwegian Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the councils and conservation groups protecting their oak trees.
They were incredibly helpful and I’m going back to Norway to find out more, particularly on the concept of blanket protection of the older oaks. This is something not true of all the older trees in this area-especially those on farmland and areas beyond the villages and town.
We have a lot in common with where I’ve been, tree wise, culturally and in our love of our surroundings and I’d like to investigate further and do something with the information.
I’m just not sure what yet.
I suppose that the point of it all, beyond having a bit of an adventure, is to highlight how important the ancient trees of our town, villages and surrounding land are.
David Oliver
D-Day 80 Commemorations in Marlborough
