Wednesday 13 January 2016

Tree Charter

The Tree Charter aims to 'place trees at the centre of national decision making , and back at the heart of our lives and communities. The charter will provide guidance and inspiration to allow us all to appreciate, preserve and celebrate our trees and woods.

The charter will be rooted in stories and memories that show us how trees have shaped our society, landscape and lives. We need you to share your story with us, to help us create a charter that reflects the true meaning of our trees and woods to the people of the UK'.

 If you're in the UK, you can share your stories of trees here. This is the story I just shared on the Tree Charter website.

I have loved trees all my life. The first tree I loved was the large sycamore at the bottom of my parent's garden, surrounded by a mass of shrubs and smaller trees. I used to hide down there and sometimes played there with my sister and our friends. The trees and shrubs are all still there, but they seem smaller these days! 

I still love trees of course, as readers of this blog will realise! Most of my favourite places feature trees, including the Braid Burn

and Colinton Dell, which I visit every week as part of my voluntary work with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust.


I love learning about trees, particularly the natural history - did you know that one of the easiest ways to recognise a lime (linden) tree in winter is by its odd 'skirt' of branches?

I also love that trees continue to be a valuable part of the ecosystem even when they've died, this fallen tree in Colinton Dell is both home to turkey tail fungus


 and used as a scratching post by local badgers


Some trees are also historically interesting. Colinton Dell is now a very peaceful area of woodland, but in the past it was full of paper mills. Most of these mills are no longer there and one of the main signs of this historical past is in the hornbeam trees, which were planted alongside the river as their wood is so strong and durable it was ideal for building parts for the mills. It's also a beautiful tree, not native to Scotland (though native to the sounth of the UK), so these trees alongside the river are probably the only ones in Edinburgh. I love their chandelier 'fruits' that come out in autumn and turn a lovely yellow colour (there are two in the photo below, the one in front still green).


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



7 comments:

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

My trees are sycamores, where the long tailed tits flit from the baby oak, and where holly blues feed off aphid sap in spring. Really tall ones, their roots went straight through a drain a few years ago

LE CHEMIN DES GRANDS JARDINS said...

Même les simples paysages, contiennent de petits trésors. Tes photos sont très belles. Belle année à toi
Amitiés.

Roger

LE CHEMIN DES GRANDS JARDINS said...

Les paysages les plus modestes renferment tous des trésors. Il suffit de les voir. Tes photos sont belles.
Belle année 2016. Amitiés.

Roger

Lynn said...

What a beautiful place. I've never seen a linden tree before.

Lowcarb team member said...

A lovely post with some great photo's too.

All the best Jan

Jenn Jilks said...

I read an interesting book about England and trees. About its forest, really. I can't remember the title. I read it before I began noting the books I read. You might enjoy it, if I could ever think of it!

Jenn Jilks said...

Hah! Rutherford, Edward; The Forest

I've looked for that title twice for some reason!