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Hunt for an ancient tree

 
Why would anyone go hunting for an ancient tree?
 
Well, to help out the Woodland Trust, that's why.  You may have seen a feature about the Ancient Tree Hunt on BBC2's Autumnwatch. They are looking to make a map of all the ancient trees, and they aren't just barking.  There are various reasons they want to do this:
 
Reasons to create a map of ancient trees
  1. To increase awareness of the importance of ancient trees
  2. To lobby for greater protection of ancient trees
  3. To identify their main areas of concentration
  4. To monitor current threats & future losses to these wonderful trees
  5. To campagin for the trees in the countryside so that they may be the ancients of the future
  6. To help plan for how to best conserve them, going forward
Ancient trees are crucial to wildlife
  
In part, this is due to their holes, dead & rotting wood, which provide homes for plants, animals and fungi.  Clusters of ancient trees are particularly critical, because they offer homes for different specialist species in one small area.  Squirrel, badger, otter, dormice, polecats, pine-martins, weasels, stoats, bats (who prefer oak & beech), owls, kestrels and marsh tits all depend on ancient trees for their food & shelter.  Some 1700 invertebrate species depend on decaying wood to complete their life cycle.  1,400 species of fungi from ancient woodland. 
  
So ancient trees matter - and the Woodland Trust needs all our help in finding them and recording them.  Find out more about ancient tree ecology and the animals depending on our ancient trees here
 
Visit the Ancient Tree Hunt for more info, including:


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