Some tree-reading scribblings from a natural navigation challenge in the New Forest, Hampshire, last year…
Life, Death and the Challenge of Ageing Trees
Gales that blew decades ago had smashed a once fine oak to the ground, but it had not surrendered, instead starting life again from its lowest branch, as most of them do. The root-ball was still intact, albeit turned ninety degrees, one half of a medusa crown of roots poking up in the air. So long as some of the roots survive and stay bedded in the soil, most trees will survive storm-felling. This is called ‘windthrow’. (Near the oak, a birch had snapped about head height and was dead, this is is called ‘windsnap’ and is usually fatal.)
The trunk lay flat on the ground, coated in moss. I ran my fingers around the girth of the lowest branch that had become a trunk and reckoned it to be near 100cm in circumference. The flat old trunk had a girth that was nearer 200cm. This tree would have started life in the open – it was the oldest in the area by some margin and these penduculate oaks struggle to generate in shade. The old rule of dating open trees by dividing the girth in centimetres by 2.5 and shaded trees by half that would not work perfectly for a tree that had started life in the open, then fallen in a storm and then started life again from a low branch, probably in shade, but… I couldn’t resist a best guess. I reckoned the storm came through about 80 years ago, felling a tree that was about 80 years old at the time.
Fun machinations over, I saluted it for all the practical help it gave me, and continued on my natural navigation challenge.
You might also enjoy:
The Difference Between Windthrow and Windsnap in Trees
How to Read a Tree – The Book