Ancient trees in Britain and their conservation

摘要

Although motorway drivers would never know it, the landscape of England and Wales is full of half-hidden ancient trees. Many old woods contain at least a few coppice stools of ash or lime the size of a dining-room table, and dating back to the Middle Ages. Other woods and deer-parks have mighty pollard oak and beech-trees, burred and stag-headed with age, each with its own air of immeasurable antiquity. Some have even been given names, like the Big Belly Oak of Savernake Forest or the Larmer Tree of Cranborne Chase. England is said to contain more trees upwards of 500 years old than any European country north of the Alps. If so, a likely reason is the relative stability of land tenure in Britain. Many trees shelter from the rigours of economic life in private parks and estates where they have been valued for their beauty and atmosphere. They also survive because of the English system of wood pasture, a landscape of scattered trees where grazing and wood-cutting were combined under a carefully regulated system of common use. No one was free to chop down the great trees. A tree's natural lifespan was extended by regular pollarding, in which the boughs would be lopped every 20 years or so, leaving the ancient trunk untouched.