NATURE COLUMN: Bill Cawley

WE had a wonderful walk on a very sunny day last weekend.

We started early from Grindon and found a path through Ladyside down paths swollen with late spring wildflowers; campion, bluebells and sweet violet were particularly luxuriant.

Our destination was Thor’s Cave which even before 10am was busy with people from a variety of nations tolling up the 197 steps to the cave.

I heard Spanish, Polish and Czech and a British Asian man was explaining about the Norse god Thor to a small boy.

I was interested in the hazel coppicing that the Wildlife Trust had established by the Manifold which gave me a thought.

In Leek we have been debating what trees to plant to offset the effects of climate change by sequestering carbon emissions.

The Trust suggest native species such as oak and maple as being effective at storing carbon dioxide although there is the question of time and space for trees that grow to such a large size over a long period.

However, as an alternative smaller faster growing species such as Goat Willow, Blackthorn, Birch and Hazel are very suitable trees to plant.

It has been described to me that these are effectively the ‘skirmishers’ of the plant world.

They were the first to establish them in Britain after the Ice Age around 10,000 years ago.

You could do worse than grow hazel on your bit of spare land.

It supports a great variety of life – 21 types of fungi are recorded as having a mutualistic association with hazel.

It is the best host for the graphidion lichen.

Several species of moth are specialist feeders on it.

As an understory component of deciduous forest it is important for bird diversity particularly ground nesting birds like the Nightjar and Yellow Hammer.

The leaves are eaten by deer and the nuts by Red Squirrel and the Wood Mouse.

It is an important tree for the dormouse providing both shelter and food. Then for humans as the late comedian Frank Muir once declaimed there are the ‘nuts, whole hazelnuts’ - a nourishing foodstuff.

Hazelnuts were prized by the Ancient Celts who equated them with wisdom and poetic skill.

The tree plays a major role in a tale from Ireland’s mythic past.

There was a pool around which nine hazel trees grew, nuts dropped from the trees into the water were eaten by a large Salmon which became the keeper of all knowledge.

A druid keen to become the master of all knowledge caught the fish and instructed a servant to cook the fish, but not to eat its flesh.

However as the salmon cooked in a pot, juices from the fish splashed on the thumb of the boy who instinctively put his thumb into his mouth to cool and accidently took in all the salmon’s wisdom.

The young man was Fion Mac Cumhaill – a powerful leader of his tribe and the stuff of legends.