Spending time with ancient trees
National Tree Week is the UK’s largest annual tree celebration, marking the start of the winter tree planting season (November to March each year). This year, it’s taking place 28 November – 6 December.
Paul Rutter, Project Leader for our Ancient & Notable Trees project, encourages us to think about spending time in the delightful company of old trees this week:
“Three years into the ‘Ancient & Notable Trees’ project and I am still finding ancient trees around the Forest of Dean… as the deciduous forest loses its gown of colourful foliage, this is a time of year when the old trees become easier to see, hidden away in the encroaching vegetation and faster growing trees.
This year spending a few hours in the woods has probably never been so important.
I find spending time around old trees and woodland very good for the soul and well-being. They are ideal places to allow time to pass slowly, where you begin to see the wildlife and plants that live in, on and around these old characters.
The light at this time of year is always changing the colour of the bark, covered with rich green mosses and lichen that all add to the timeless look of these trees as they stand quietly for centuries in our landscape.
The more we appreciate them the better chance they have of surviving long into the future for our children’s children to enjoy them as well.
So, during #NationalTreeWeek, why not take a walk in the woods on your doorstep and see if you can find an ancient tree.”
Photos: courtesy Paul Rutter. Beech tree, with a large hollow cavity and an ancient Oak growing in a rock crevice. Two of the remaining 'grand old characters' that can still be found in and around the Forest of Dean.
Date: 27 November 2020