In the last bit of the old millennium there were around six managers for the region, based in Savernake Forest near the camp site assisted by seventeen forest workers-or eleven. I don’t recall the exact number but it was- and is- considerably more than none-which is the exact number these days.
And because there are no managers or men on the ground reporting stuff and the FC has spent most of its money changing names and abandoning its assets (owned or leased) everything is going wrong.
The ‘wrongest’ of these wrongs is failure to care for the veteran trees.
Here is a basic and massively simplified argument for veteran tree care:
Trees, particularly hardwoods (beech, ash, oak, hornbeam, lime etc.) have a structural core for support and an outer layer under the bark for transportation of fluids and minerals. Over time the inner part can-and often does-become hollow due to disease. This is fine, so long as the outer layer is intact and, crucially, the weight of the branches in the crown doesn’t become too heavy.
Trees lose limbs if they lose their structural integrity and they can lose them so catastrophically that the entire tree might end up torn in half, split down the middle or felled entirely.
The solution is simple: Reduce the crown in height and spread to prevent excessive force acting on the trunk. This can be proportional to the tree’s requirements and be a light reduction, say 20% of height and spread, or a severe pollard in extreme cases.
And there is blindingly beautiful proof that this works in Savernake Forest.
My wife bought me Peter Noble’s lovely and very well written booklet ‘The Named Oaks of Savernake’. Maybe she wanted me to do something other than create dozens of cheeseboards that weren’t selling as fast as I could make them, or perhaps she just thought I’d like it. Well, I did (like the booklet that is, I still make too many kitchen based accessories).
So, I fired up the electric bike, survived the onslaught of unpleasant abuse hurled my way every time I ride to Marlborough and found myself standing next to the King of Limbs in the forest.
Except that it is now the ‘King of Hardly Any Limbs’, because they’ve all fallen off.
1,130 years old and left to fall apart – shame.
Compare this to the magnificent Cathedral Oak which is still largely intact. Why? Well, maybe because it was pollarded for ship building and not abandoned to its own devices.
Old-school arborists did this, without a Risk Assessment or Method Statement to their name. Probably they had more of an eye on the timber itself and were pretty busy trying not to catch horrid Olde England diseases and making sure there was enough gruel to eat at tea time, nevertheless, tree care and maintenance is exactly the effect they had.
This is non-scientific proof, but it is nonetheless true.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been visiting and photographing the oaks and it has been a journey of revelation and joy at the beauty of the trees, mixed with despair at the consequences of failure:
Crockmere Oak – fallen.
Saddle Oak 1 and 2 – massive limb loss.
Esturmy Oak – covered in ivy (increasing the wind resistance and potential for branch loss).
Big Belly Oak – unattended since 2003 with rusted outdated support braces.
There is more, much more if you go back over the past three decades and the failure isn’t limited to just the named oaks, it includes the old sweet chestnuts, limes and beech – though admittedly less is do-able in the case of the latter.
The losses are increasing as the trees age and the unusually wet-warm-windy climate becomes less ‘unusual’. The damage has been very bad in the past three years and I’m sure it isn’t Covid this time.
It is the veteran trees I care about, the overall maintenance of Savernake is another issue and I won’t pass comment on the rights and wrongs of cattle fences without cattle, or absence of planting etc.
And for once, it is selfless. Drawing attention to the problem might bring more people with beards to the forest which will annoy me because I like to be there alone. But that is a small price to pay to preserve (if the men with beards do help) the beautiful and ancient trees of our forest.
Actually, it’s privately owned and run by whatever name the Forestry Commission are currently using, but it is sort of ‘ours’ and that means ‘we’ should do something to help. In my case that could involve showing the problem to anyone who cares what I am talking about. I won’t enjoy it, (remember – I prefer to be on my own) but if you want to see, I can show you. In the meantime, if you have any ideas beyond asking King Charles what I should do next, please tell me. You don’t necessarily need a beard or a clipboard and please don’t bring a Mission Statement.
I am awaiting a response from Forestry England – I sort of blackmailed them a bit by mentioning my letter to King Charles and I’m hoping that he isn’t too busy to show some interest, even if it’s just a thumbs up ‘good luck with your mission’ emoji!
Can you imagine the sadness if the veteran trees of Savernake appear in the news one day as a thing of the past?
“Oh yes, I remember them, they were so beautiful, shame they all fell down…”
Rockley’s Will Rawlin ready for first Badminton appearance this week
