28/09/2026
“Old trees are our parents, and our parents’ parents, perchance.”
Richard Powers uses those words in The Overstory, borrowing them from Henry David Thoreau.
Today at Voltaire’s Wood, John Saunders has been out with ecologist Clair Cartwright, looking closely at some of our veteran trees.
Because age in a woodland is not simply something to admire. A veteran tree may be hollowing, losing limbs, carrying deadwood or supporting great plates of fungi. To us, these can look like signs of decline, but ecologically, they are often exactly the opposite.
The older and more complicated a tree becomes, the more habitat it can create for other life. Insects beneath loose bark, fungi within decaying wood, and birds and bats in hollows and cavities.
Ancient and veteran trees are classed as irreplaceable habitat for good reason. You can plant another tree, but you cannot plant another 300-year-old tree.
That comes only with time, and with allowing trees to grow old, change, hollow, weather and decay as part of the life of the wood.
Today was about looking properly at what we have here, understanding these trees better, and thinking about how we care for them for the years ahead. A role we don't take lightly.
