Whats going on with Sherwood Forest?

Question

I had heard that the trees are dying.

and what to do? or what can one do?

save the trees!! save the trees!

Answer 1

I have not checked the status of Sherwood Forest, but I will do.

In the UK trees and woods need to be managed. Traditionally since circa 1066 woods have been coppiced. This is a sustainable way of removing useful timber without losing the actual tree and preventing the tree getting so old that it dies, as you suggest is happening in Sherwood Forest. Ash trees are a perfect example of this. An uncoppiced Ash Tree would be lucky to reach eighty years as it is extremely susceptible to fungal attack. When coppiced some of the more famous examples can be 900 years old.

Planted Trees (plantations) are a very modern phenomena (since 1945) before that time trees were self perpetuating. All the old trees aged 500 years plus in the UK are trees that have been managed by coppicing, this is called Primary Woodland. Coppicing means that the tree is cut down to the ground in winter. In spring it regrows from the stool (old stump). This can go on indefinitely so it extends the trees' natural life. Strictly speaking a wood is somewhere that has been managed by a woodsman (primary woodland). Note this is a woodsman, as opposed to a Forrester who is more like a farmer of trees.

Only recently we have stopped managing woodlands in the traditional way. In fact in the 1980s ancient woodland was actually grubbed up by the Forestry Commission to make way for plantations, predominantly coniferous softwoods. They have since ceased this damaging practice and any ancient woodland left is now protected by legislation. The trees are so old now, generally oaks, that people have formed an attachment to them as they stand. However, they are probably now too old to resume coppicing so they are all approaching the end of their natural life and will die out.

So basically we have got ourselves into a bit of a situation, most trees in this country can not be replaced for a number of reasons, for example: oaks are afflicted by American Oak Mildew which they have little or no resistance to and it is thought to modify their ability to grow in a Woodland situation, ie being able to cope with shade and dry conditions. This tends to affect their viability.

Or another example would be the existence/absence of mycelium (fungi) in the soils which can take hundreds of years to be re-established, if at all.

Because our native trees are on the edge of their climatic range, seed production is extremely sporadic and successful growth from seed to mature tree is rare in nature. Which is why we have forests with trees that are a thousand years old, there have been no replacements; the old existing trees have not been naturally replaced by self seeded saplings.

So even if we do manage to grow trees from seed the character of a plantation will never come close to matching that of an ancient wood.

Without a change of the sentimental but ignorant attitude towards the management of woods, trees and woods will continue to die and so will all the associated flora and fauna. Trees and woods are living things, as such, they have an age limit as all living things do. People managed woods by the traditional methods of coppicing for hundreds of years which artificially extended trees' lives. What you are seeing now is just the natural end of old trees.

Answer 2

I have witnessed this problem down in Dorset. The Wareham Heath used to extend from the outskirts of Dorchester, to Poole in my childhood. Apart from the Bovington Army Training Area, there is little left. Most has been "recovered" for agriculture over the past 40 years.

Heathland and forest are environmental food sources for a wide range of wildlife. When the wilderness area is large, the parts, eaten and damaged by grazing animals, have time to restore themselves, while the wildlife feeds off other, healthier parts. However, if there are fewer opportunities for the grazers to wander, then the wilderness dies and so does the wildlife.

It is a matter of scale and, unless we do something to reverse the trends, we WILL lose what remains!

Answer 3

Nothing that isn't happening to other forests too. The trees live 900 years on average. Many of those trees are now over 900 years old. And development has chipped away at the area of forest so that it is a small fraction of its original size.

Answer 4

All sorts of wonderful things are going on with Sherwood Forest. Sherwood Forest has doubled in size and is home to nightjars and woodlarks, whose population is increasing.

To quote Stephen Clifton, from Natural England,: "We now have a natural nature reserve that is truly characteristic of the old Sherwood Forest, with areas of old woodland and ancient oak trees.

What to do or what can one do? The obvious solution is to steal from the rest of humanity and give to the environmentalists, who would seem quite willing to accept such ill-gotten gain.

Answer 5

Global warming. Apparently the Beech trees will die first (if we don't count the Elms that have already vanished to an imported beetle).

Answer 6

the trees are dying & the forest is shrinking

Answer 7

humans cars and firework night all not helping it's a real same we,re loosing so much forestation,

Answer 8

I hope not! How serious is it?