SPOTLIGHT ON VETERAN TREES
Dr Jeremy Dagley, Club General Secretary and Epping Forest Conservation Officer
for Corporation of London
What is a veteran tree - does size matter?
It is a term that is not open to a precise definition because of the range of species and
circumstances it is trying to incorporate. Essentially a veteran is " a tree that is of
interest biologically, culturally or aesthetically because of its age, size or condition"
(Read 2000). Some ancient trees are instantly recognisable like the huge old oak
pollards of our parks or the great Beeches of Epping Forest but others like Crab
Apples, birches and thorns require more careful consideration. So size does matter,
but only sometimes. A rough guide for trees like English Oak is that trees with a
diameter of more than 1.0m (3.2m girth) are potentially interesting; those with a
diameter more than 1.5m (girth 4.7m) are definitely valuable in terms of conservation;
and at 2.0m (6.25m girth) the tree is truly ancient (Read 2000).
Not seeing the trees for the wood
Ancient or veteran trees have been in the news a lot lately and not before time.
Individual ancient trees, especially giant oaks and yews, have always been venerated
in Britain and incorporated into fairy tales, children's stories, folklore and local
customs (see Richard Mabey's recent book Flora Britannica). However, the greater
number of them away from settlements and highways and the smaller less
conspicuous veterans have been less well appreciated, as much by conservationists as
anyone else.
It was back in the late sixties and early seventies that the first concerns for their
protection were raised in the growing conservation movement. Entomologists, in
particular, echoing the early ecologists' sentiments (eg Elton 1966) were beginning to
raise concerns about dead wood and old trees and their loss from sites across the
country (eg Stubbs 1972). However, in official nature conservation circles stress was
laid on general habitat criteria and botanical interest in defining the importance of
sites. A read through the two volumes of the Nature Conservation Review published
by the then Nature Conservancy Council (Rateliffe 1977) reveals this approach.
Descriptions of Epping and Hatfield Forests hardly refer to the old trees or their
associated wildlife communities at all, whilst stressing the importance of the
woodland habitat types; to reverse an old saying it was a case of not seeing the trees
for the wood.
As a result of this perspective, many old parklands and their trees have not featured in
conservation protection designations despite containing a large part of the ancient tree
resource of this country. Even where parklands have been included for general habitat
reasons the ancient trees themselves have still not always been protected. For example
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 33, September 2000