Ancient trees and farming

[Mick Dempsey]

Well perhaps.....a bit.

[MattyF]

I'm seeing more and more veteran trees getting felled up here , the tree officers seem to encourage it for safety ... Another tragedy is seeing ancient pasture getting ploughed for grazing , one estate seems to manage another Feild every year.

[David Humphries]

Well perhaps.....a bit.

 

I live in the country Mick, these trees are within a 10 minute drive from my house.

 

I just happen to work in an urban environment, and if you've ever been to or know my working manor, it's a lot more like countryside than town.

 

I'm not your 'usual' run of the mill urban tree officer

 

 

 

 

 

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[Kveldssanger]

I would say that the prospect of urban TOs strolling around farmland lecturing farmers is an amusing one.

 

The propspect of reading lacklustre sarcastic comments is equally as amusing.

[Mick Dempsey]

These trees are in a field on a farm where I grew up. The remnants of an old hedge line that was grubbed up in the 50/60s

I remember they grew wheat every year in that field before the Common Agricultural Policy.

This presumably meant ploughing.

I'm not suggesting it did the trees a lot of good but is it really a death sentence?

[silky fox]

I'm seeing more and more veteran trees getting felled up here , the tree officers seem to encourage it for safety ... Another tragedy is seeing ancient pasture getting ploughed for grazing , one estate seems to manage another Feild every year.

 

That's sad....very sad.

[David Humphries]

These trees are in a field on a farm where I grew up. The remnants of an old hedge line that was grubbed up in the 50/60s

 

I remember they grew wheat every year in that field before the Common Agricultural Policy.

 

This presumably meant ploughing.

 

I'm not suggesting it did the trees a lot of good but is it really a death sentence?

 

 

 

Ploughing v trees = dysfunction, decline and death

 

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[Kveldssanger]

These trees are in a field on a farm where I grew up. The remnants of an old hedge line that was grubbed up in the 50/60s

I remember they grew wheat every year in that field before the Common Agricultural Policy.

This presumably meant ploughing.

I'm not suggesting it did the trees a lot of good but is it really a death sentence?

 

Long term? Very likely so. Roots are being damaged / destroyed, mycorrhizal associations are being disrupted / destroyed (as a result of ploughing, fertilisation of the soil, and a monoculture beneath the tree), and the pH of the soil is changing (as a result of fertilisation, amongst other things I would expect). Just because the tree doesn't die overnight doesn't mean it is not dying - trees don't necessarily respnd immediately to a stressor. It may take years, if not decades. We really need to get out of this mindset of "well it didn't die the next year so it can't be that bad".

 

Drive along the 414 from Chelmsford to Harlow and just weep at all the hammered oaks. Nasty.

[Mick Dempsey]

Here's another one I know well, in a wheat field.

[Kveldssanger]

I would also stress that we're saying that there is a tendency for the trees to decline / die. There will always be those that buck the trend. Of course, my point stands about some trees declining more slowly. It depends on many variables, including what radius of non-ploughed land surrounds the tree(s), what is grown on the land around the tree(s), what pesticides and fertilisers are applied around the tree(s), and how intensively-managed the farmland is around the tree(s).