One of Britain’s leading experts on trees has expressed astonishment over the lack of public funding to protect ancient trees, reports Horticulture Week.
Ted Green, an adviser to the Queen who was awarded an OBE recently for services to ancient trees, said state cash was needed because of trees’ landscape and cultural importance.
“These trees are old archives of gene banks,” said Green. “They are reservoirs of resistance — that is why they are still standing.”
He told a conference for Wealden District Council recently: “It is important to allow them to go through the natural ageing process and not tidy them away.”
Chris Hannington, Wealden District Council’s landscape and biodiversity officer, said: “There are many threats to the survival of ancient trees.
“Poor management, inappropriate tree surgery and global warming are all important issues affecting them.”
Wealden’s ancient trees are among the largest concentrations in northern Europe and were surveyed recently by Wealden ancient tree survey officer Ali Wright.
Of the 24,000 recorded ancient trees in the UK nearly 1,000 of them — 4% — were in Wealden. These included yew trees that could be 1,000 years old.
Wealden District Council is currently consulting on a set of guidelines to encourage developers to preserve veteran trees.
Source: Horticulture Week
Date: 06/05/2009
Filed under: ancient trees, conservation, tree planting, urban trees | Tagged: ancient trees, conservation, environment, funding, horticulture week, preservation, trees, veteran trees, wealden district council
