Bid to preserve rare pine uprooted in storm

Experts are harvesting shoots from rare pine trees after one of the last of their kind was uprooted in

Storm Arwen.

The 110-year-old Scots pine in Williams Cleugh, Northumberland, was one of seven thought to be the only remnants in England of postglacial pinewoods. Specialists are now collecting shoots from it, and the remaining trees, to graft on to saplings.

The aim is to conserve the DNA of the last population for future generations. Scots pine were once widespread throughout the British Isles, but now Scots pine forests are restricted to the Scottish Highlands.