Ancient Tree Forum

28th April 2003 Veteran Tree Management and Dendrochronology, Birklands and Bilhough cSAC, Nottinghamshire – English Nature Research Report no 489 by Charles Watkins, Christopher Lavers and Robert Howard.		This study looked at a sample of 92 ancient trees in Sherwood Forest. 58 of the trees were dead and 34 were living and from these trees 71 cores could be linked to the East Midlands Tree Ring Chronology. Some of the trees were cored (living trees) and others sawn (dead trees or fallen wood). The highest number of rings from one core was 403 and from sawn wood 489. The earliest ring measured relates to the year 1415. From this tree it was estimated that the tree started its life c.1400 and died between the first and second world wars aged around 530 years. The study appears to confirm that ancient trees can live on with a very small canopy for many years. The report makes very interesting reading. For a copy see www.english-nature.org.uk