We all need to plant trees!

 If we lose them, we can’t hug them….and that should be the least of our worries! Plant trees!

Leslie hugging a tree at Bodnant Garden

I didn’t plant this tree but I’m really glad someone did! It’s a Metasequoia glyptostroboides in the beautiful Dell at Bodnant Garden.

 

Back in April I wrote a blog about the possibility of losing our Oak trees to Acute Oak Decline. Last week The Woodland Trust blogged about the impact of losing 12 million Ash trees to Ash Dieback.

Then there’s Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner, London Planes suffering from Massaria disease, various Phytopthora pathogens and Red band needle blight attacking our conifers…the list goes on. When you factor in the pressures from climate change, pollution and urban development (such as the HS2 rail link destroying Ancient Woodlands) you get the picture – we are losing trees rapidly.

In June, the Forestry Commission released it’s latest woodland cover statistics in their document “Woodland Area, Planting and Restocking”. England has just 10% tree cover – that’s one of the lowest percentages in the whole of Europe!

But there is something we can all do to help….plant a tree, or, if you’ve got the space, plant a load of trees!

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Can you imagine England without Oak Trees?!

The English Oak (Quercus robur) is one of the most recognisable trees in England – as a child, I was encouraged to collect it’s leaves and draw them (such an iconic shape) and the acorn cups were obviously hats discarded by fairies! There’s so many of them that they seem to fill our landscape, they are one of the richest habitats with individual trees supporting countless birds and insects and, best of all, they seem to live forever, or at least for a very, very long time. And yet… they’re under attack?!

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