Ancient trees are not valuable despite their decay and rot – but frequently because of it.<\/p>\n
Though it may sound like a cause for concern, decay is a natural part of a tree’s development.<\/p>\n
Splitting bark, cavities, hollow trunks and pockets of water create “microhabitats” that support bats, birds, insects, fungi and other species.<\/p>\n
“All of these little microhabitats are what make an ancient tree more ecologically important,” said Stokes.<\/p>\n
“It’s all the other things that live in and around it. Oaks can support up to 2,000 different species.”<\/p>\n
But beyond their ecological value, ancient trees also serve as living links to the country’s past.<\/p>\n
The oldest yew tree in Hampshire, at All Saints Church in Farringdon near Alton, is estimated to be between 2,500 and 3,000 years old.<\/p>\n
That means it may have first taken root long before the Roman conquest of Britain, predating Christianity itself.<\/p>\n
Across Britain, some ancient trees are older than Stonehenge.<\/p>\n
Stokes said: “That’s an astonishing thought process because everybody sees Stonehenge as part of the nation’s heritage.<\/p>\n
“But a tree that’s quietly been growing for the same period of time wouldn’t necessarily be on anybody’s radar as part of our heritage.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ancient trees are not valuable despite their decay and rot – but frequently because of it. Though it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-577679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}