Worcestershire Record No. 19 November 2005 p. 7

Harry Green and John Tilt

The good thing is that we now have 805 trees recorded. The slightly less good news is that the data is not complete for each tree. This is partly because recording was not fully standardised when we started the Register and partly because we do not always receive complete information for a whole variety of reasons. WE do also have some worrying grid references! Occasionally they indicate the presence of a tree where none exists on the aerial photographs. Most of the problems are errors in noting down the reference. We should also like to have more information on the habitat in which a tree is growing and a photograph is worth many words!

Nevertheless recording is going very well. There are still many trees to record – we rarely get duplicate records. We do encourage readers to continue or start to record. Worcestershire undoubtedly has a great many old trees. The recording forms are readily available from either of us either on paper or we can email them to you. The advantage of the latter is that once you have a copy you can enter the details on the form using your computer and simply email the completed form to John Tilt. Remembering to save a copy and to keep a blank form on your computer! Digital pictures can also be sent by email but please keep the file size fairly small. A picture reduced to about 3.5" x 4" with a resolution 150 dpi gives a file less than 100k which is fine for storage on the database. Please remember to label the file so the tree is clearly identified.

Not all the trees on the database are very ancient of course. Perhaps around 100 oaks have a circumference of around 4 metres or above and the smallest of these are probably around 200 years old. The oldest, like the Temple Oak shown on our logo, are around 1000 years old. The ‘younger’ trees are still well worth recording. For some other tree species we have no way of even guessing their age.

Our trees will soon be on the ancient tree database organised by the Ancient Tree Forum and Woodland Trust.

On Saturday 26th November 2005 we were able to talk to a group of Parish Tree wardens about the value of ancient trees and method of recording them. Many thanks for Wade Muggleton at the County Countryside Centre for organising the meeting. We concluded by recording five ancient trees along the eastern boundary of Nunnery Wood – a very useful exercise. We have great hope of lots of records from this group! We very much encourage Parish Surveys for ancient trees either by Tree Wardens or other interested people. If you would like to take up this idea please contact us.