Trees Please…(old ones especially)

First up is an update on our wild boar. No further evidence, but I imagine there may be further sightings (or similar) on the first day of April next year!

So what has been happening in the mean time? Well not a lot on the ground sadly. The contract for our big planting has been put out for tender with a lot of site visits so far made by prospective contractors. We still have no idea either when any of our NFM (natural flood management) work will commence, which is frustrating, but as they say (no idea tho who ‘they’ are?) “good things come to those that wait”. We will see.

BUT on a positive note, we had a very interesting session earlier today with a lady from the Woodland Trust ancient tree inventory scheme. (http://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk ) This aims to map all the ancient trees in the country (of which there are a few registered locally and a lot more not yet registered). She showed us how to identify old trees, how to record them and what to look for when searching. There are quite a few on The Cluster from mighty ancient crab apples to old elders (which are seldom recorded).

A wet start turned into a dry late morning with lots of interesting points raised regarding how to correctly measure and photograph trees before sending the details to the Ancient Tree Inventory (see link above). I expect a few records from The Cluster to start appearing on the inventory soon. If you would like to see any of these old trees, drop us a line.

Many thanks to Christa Nelson (Tees-Swale Naturally Connected) and to Vanessa (didn’t get her surname) for facilitating this.

MWW