Veteran Tree Project

This worthwhile project to identify and map our oldest trees has now been launched. As reported in the last newsletter, Hurst's contribution was jointly funded by the Hurst Village Society and the Parish Council. The money goes towards training volunteers in surveying the trees and correlating the data collected in Wokingham District for eventual inclusion on a national database.

Maggie Sanderson is co-ordinating the Hurst effort and has divided the village up into areas to ensure that the whole parish is covered. The project will focus primarily on trees with a diameter of 1 metre plus. However in some species e.g. hawthorn or silver birch, a very old tree will have a much smaller diameter and these will also be noted.

Maggie will feed the Hurst results back to the project co-ordinator to be added to a database that will include all of Wokingham District's data. This vital work will enable these important trees to be monitored and protected.

For more information about the project in Hurst, please contact either Maggie Sanderson on 0118 934 xxxx or Janet Spiller on 0118 934 xxxx.

Concern about veteran trees prompted the launch in January of a new environmental organisation - the Wokingham District Veteran Tree Association. The declared aims of the Association are "to promote the better identification, protection and management of veteran and other significant trees in the District and to increase public awareness of the environmental and historical importance of these trees". For further information contact the secretary Ray Stagles on 0118 978 xxxx or by email.