On the trail of our endangered trees
THERE is in the beautiful countryside that surrounds the picture postcard Staffordshire village of Barton under Needwood a real rarity: an ancient monster that dominates the landscape.
Leaning to one side and intricately patterned, it is a black poplar, one of Britain’s rarest trees.
The villages surrounding Barton provide one of the last strongholds for this mighty native species, with its dark grey, deeply furrowed bark.
The poplar’s decline has gone almost unnoticed. Once, it was a prized commodity. The springy wood was used for cartwheels and teased into arches for homes.
Then it was discovered the wood absorbed paraffin and it became THE favoured material for Victorian matchboxes.
Now there are only 10,000 black poplars left in Britain.
If you want to know what one looks like, study John Constable’s painting, “The Hay Wain”. That’s a black poplar in all its glory.
The black poplar is not alone in facing an uncertain future. Many of our native species are in crisis, yet the public is clueless about their slide to extinction.
We take trees for granted, which is curious. We are blind to how spectacular they are.
For example, one of this country’s most stunning specimens is a mere three miles from Birmingham city centre. Moseley Bog is home to the gnarled oak. It is at least 300 years old.
That’s a mere baby compared to the Fortingall Yew in Perthsire, which is at least 3,000 years old, possibly 5,000.
Trees are the biggest and oldest living things on our island. They provide homes for our rarest wildlife. And they are the planet’s lungs.
Lose trees and you lose such critically endangered animals as pine marten, dormice, a host of bat species, long eared owl, lesser spotted woodpecker, the last remaining golden oriole...the list is long.
Make no mistake, lose one tree species and the domino effect is disastrous.
Yet it is difficult to get the public to buy into “save the tree” campaigns.
Those with a love for them are derided as “tree huggers” - off-thewall conservationists with hippy tendencies.
Be honest, if introduced to a dendrologist – an individual who studies trees – at a party, you’d probably avoid him or her like the plague.
It’s not a hobby that will draw gasps.
At a push, we can identify an oak leaf or the flaking metallic bark of a silver birch. Apart from that, our knowledge of Britain’s trees is near non existent.
And, sadly, it takes time to miss what isn’t there. But miss them – and the wildlife that relies on them – you most certainly will. It is a global crisis that is whispered in this country, not shouted.
A recent report, The State of the
World’s Trees, has earmarked 30 per cent of the world’s 60,000 known species as facing the threat of extinction.
For the health of our ailing planet, that is bleak news.
Sara Oldfield, co-chair of the Global Tree Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, told the BBC: “Each tree species has a unique ecological role to play. With 30 per cent of the world’s tree species threatened with extinction, we need to urgently scaleup conservation action.”
For the sake of our children’s children we need to move the debate from the back to the front burner.
And we need to know why so many species have been pushed to the brink of oblivion.
Felling, logging, h habitat bi l loss and d pollution are obvious culprits.
But trees now appear much more susceptible to disease.
The Natural History Museum explains: “One of the biggest dangers to trees is disease.
“For example, the horse chestnut tree is susceptible to a fungal disease known as bleeding canker.
“Symptoms include a rusty-red or black liquid seeping out of the bark, cracking or rotting, premature leaf drop and, eventually, possible death.
“Another fungal disease, ash dieback, is having a devastating impact on ash trees across Europe. Its arrival in the UK was confirmed in 2012.”
Dutch elm disease has spread devastation, dde astation i too.
The horse chestnut, which has, for decades, provided the ammunition for childhood games of conkers, was once widespread. It has now been classified as “vulnerable to extinction”.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a true native species, having been introduced here from Turkey in the late 16th century.
Let me enlighten you over the situation on the home front.
To some extent, the picture is confusing and the current complacency understandable.
The clear message is not to believe
what you are
seeing. seeing You’ve got to separate the wood from the trees, if you’ll excuse the pun.
Because what you are seeing is TWICE the woodland cover we had 100 years ago.
That is due to the vast commercial forests of non-native trees planted by organisations such as the Forestry Commission.
In reality, this country’s true broadleaf woodlands have become increasingly isolated, their health has deteriorated and the wildlife they harbour has declined.
There are 60 species in Britain that are truly native, meaning they were not brought here by man from overseas and planted.
Only three are conifers and only 35 are widespread.
Fifteen are so endangered they have been declared priority species.
They include Leys white-beam which now numbers o only 17 – all clinging to lime-stone cliffs on the Brecon Beaco cons. The woolly willow – more shrub than tree with distinctive oval hairy leaves – hangs on in the central Highlands.
Gin drinkers will know all about the common co juniper, which should now perhaps be renamed the extrem extremely rare juniper.
The blue berries of this moorland conifer are used to flavour their favourite tipple. The common juniper was once an important part of our culture, but is now disappearing at a rapid rate.
Juniper was considered a deterrent against evil and was burned to ward off witches and warlocks. Its oil is still used to ease respiratory problems.
The common juniper is now all but gone.
The rarest UK tree of them all is the catacol whitebeam, also known as the false rowan.
Until last year only one was known to exist on the Isle of Arran, making it not only the rarest tree in Britain, but also sharing top spot in the world.
Another specimen has recently been found on the same island. The population may have doubled, but the future is far from rosy.
Even Britain’s most loved tree, the mighty oak, is suffering very hard times.
The situation is so serious charities, landowners and scientists have united to form Action Oak, an initiative to protect the UK’S 120 million trees.
The oak has been rocked to its roots by climate change, pests and disease.
The James Hutton Institute, alongside partners from the RSPB, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge, have discovered that if the oak significantly declines, so will the 2,300 species of birds, insects, mammals and fungi that rely it.
“Our really old large oak trees support the greatest number of species. We are currently benefiting from trees established hundreds of years ago,” said Dr Ruth Mitchell of the James Hutton Institute’s Ecological Sciences group.
“We hope that this work will help us start thinking now about how our woodlands could look in hundreds of years and the biodiversity they might support.”
Without trees, climate change will accelerate.
The Woodland Trust has produced a blueprint for action in Britain. The trust needs to be listened to: rather than rip-up woodland for development, we need to safeguard our health and the health of the planet by protecting it.
And planting dense conifer woodlands for commercial purposes, forests so dark and crowded they are wildlife deserts, is not the answer.
Those faux forests are part of the problem.
A trust spokesperson said: “We need to at least quadruple the current rate of woodland creation and increase the proportion of Uk-grown native species to help tackle the effects of climate change and give nature a fighting chance of recovery.
“Inventories of ancient woods and trees need to be frequently undertaken as well as regular assessment of important wildlife sites. Data gaps need filling and there needs to be systematic woodland and tree monitoring.
“Time, money, people and innovation are needed to take on the challenge and create opportunities for woods and trees.”
That is a start, that is the seed of an idea. But great oaks from little acorns grow.