Tree of the Year under threat from proposed high speed train link

The Cubbington Pear Tree in Warwickshire is believed to be over 250 years old, one of the oldest and largest wild pear trees in the UK. This tree has become a local icon and recently received over a third of more than 10,000 votes cast by members of the public in the Woodland Trust's Tree of the Year contest.

The tree joins the Suffragette Oak from Scotland, Peace Tree in Northern Ireland and ‘Survival at the cutting edge’ from Wales and 12 other trees from across Europe in the European Tree of the Year contest in February 2016.

Sadly. the Cubbington Pear Tree, along with another 20 ancient, veteran or notable trees lies within the  construction boundary of HS2 Phase 1 (the route of a proposed new high speed rail link). It is therefore likely to be destroyed for the sake of reducing journey times by a small amount.

One of the reasons this tree won the Tree of the Year accolade is precisely because of the threat to its existence from HS2, in the hope of raising awareness of the potential devastation that HS2 could cause to ancient trees and the natural world in general.

If you're concerned about the future of Britain's threatened trees then show your support for the Woodland Trust's V.I.Trees campaign, which aims to create an official register to catalogue and protect Trees of National Special Interest across Britain.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.