A Week on the Estate: Wet May, Oak Surgery & Climbing Trees

This was the biggest tree Mike had tackled with this procedure, and he had to drill through thick sections of tough, dense oak, and work at heights up to 28m. “It’s great to see that people are willing to invest to save a veteran tree like this,” said Mike. “This procedure won’t ‘cure’ this oak but it will slow its decline. The tree will slowly decay and hollow out, but it will maintain a living, standing canopy for years to come. It will also remain a habitat for many species, which would be lost if the tree were allowed to collapse.”

According to the Woodland Trust, the English oak supports more life than any other native tree. By hosting hundreds of insect species, it supports various bird species. It is even thought that the tree’s sophisticated ecosystem can chemically signal blue tits to binge on caterpillars, should those ravenous invertebrates threaten the tree’s health. Squirrels, badgers and deer benefit from acorns in the autumn, and in mast years the oak’s generosity can cause their populations to boom.

At ground level and below, oak leaves rot down quickly and help form a fertile leaf mould in which invertebrates and fungi thrive. The tree’s rough texture and thick bark gives bats and birds like woodpeckers and marsh tits perfect nesting opportunities.  With Mike’s help, this grand old man of our parkland may well see a few more generations of estate history unfold.

Finally, at the Hall, another local expert in arboriculture very kindly gave the Saturday Club an action-packed enrichment session. Sam of Gnarly Tree Ltd showed the team how to test the weights of different chainsaws, how to use a catapult to loop a climbing rope over high branches, and how to hoist themselves up a tree. Climbing those ropes clearly isn’t quite as easy as Sam makes it look.