Good morning all! The excitement of snow subsided pretty quickly, once the disappointment of rain set in. Moist, dewy and dropletty today, by the looks of it! Todays tree is not as exotic as one might first think: The Westonbirt Lime: Lowland Britain was once almost completely forested. Since people started making their mark here, much of that forest has been cleared to make way for homes, roads etc, but some ancient forestry remains. When pondering which tree might be most commonly found in those ancient forests, my mind inveitably wanders to the traditional: the oak, the yew, the ash? Peat bogs make excellent storage for the natural history of an area, and some of Brtainss beloved anoraks love nothing more than to count the teeny weeny tree pollen grains they find in these bogs. Records show the oaks and limes have existed here for around 10,000 years, since just after the Ice Age. If you were so inclined to get your anorak on and count the pollen in a peat sample, oak would win twigs down. The thing with small-leaved limes is, they produce a lot less pollen than oaks, preferring to burst all over in a riot of sweet, yellow flowers in midsummer. They spend the Summer mobbed by fans of the six-legged persuasion, who come from miles around to enjoy the annual pollen festival. Especially their groupies, the bees; though I doubt you needed telling that! The anoraks realised they may have boobed and once they got over the shock they went back the the drawing board,factored the flowers into the equation and realised that if a single peat sample contains 90% oak pollen and 10% lime, this means its highly likely that the forest in that area would have been oak, scattered among lots and lots of lovely lime trees. Wow, if it doesnt sound beautiful enough, just imagine the smell in summer! The reason for their decline makes perfect sense to those of us who appreciate the dynamic nature of nature. Climate change is not a new concept, its been going on since time began. A change to shorter, wetter Summers in Britain meant less blossom, less seeds, less trees. This process and the losses were inevitable. Humans helped, by replacing hunter-gathering with farming. Cattle went straight for the sweet, tasty lime saplings with gusto. We sped up a few changes, but Nature is unstoppable and change inevitable. With the current shift in climate, while we may lose some old favourites in certain parts of the world, but if were clever with our seeds and things, we may experience a revival in species of plant and animal that have been lost to us for some time. Its called making the best of things. We might consider trying it. Besides letting our cattle chomp away at the small-leaved limes, people also discovered they are excellent trees for coppicing. Its the fine art of chopping a tree down to a stump, and harvesting the saplings that grow from it. Coppicing has been done in the Wyre forest for as long as there have been people here. You may have seen products of coppicing in many forms; baskets, fences, hurdles (woven panels traditionally used as fencing, farmed firewood, bean poles, oh, squillions of lovely, sustainable wooden things. I spose youre wondering why Im babbling on about everything but our tree. The truth is, I havent got a great deal of information about the tree specifically, and when I got into learning about where the limes came from and where they are now, I found it all so interesting I just had to write it all down! Onward and upward. In a little village called Knockdown (typically quaint) near Tetbury, Gloucestershire (England) is Britains National Aboretum. They have a massive collection of labelled trees, including many endangered species, and some which are almost extinct. Theyve got a few hundred Champion trees as well, which I definitely want to see. Champion status is awarded to trees whove managed to grow really really tall, really really fat, or really really both. Our tree sits in an ancient clump of small-leaved limes, which have been coppiced for many years - possibly since the Anglo-Saxons developed the art, when they were busy nicking our land and teaching us how to swear properly. You can tell a coppiced tree a mile off; itll be a clump of trunks growing in a clump around a centre which is called a stool. repeated cutting results in an ever increasing stool, of which there are several in this coppice. The tree anoraks can eyeball the age of a coppiced tree by the size of the clump, and this enormous clump of tree is estimated to be 2000 years old and is one of several of similar age. In this age of climate change, and obsession over the damage human beings are doing to the planet, its worth bearing in mind that out of our inventiveness, weve managed to do one or two pretty awesome things in our relatively insignificant existence. Coppicing is one such invention, and while it might not be widely known about, while it might seem insignificant when compared to inventions like the internal combustion engine, it is of huge benefit to us in terms of sustainable wood production, so we can save more of our natural ancient forestry. Coppicing keeps a tree short, and therefore less likely to be blown down, or for it to split under its own weight, so extending the life of the tree. Longer life, more flowers, more bees, more life for everyone! If you have been, thanks for reading. Have a lovely day, folks :) xxx
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:19:14 +0000
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