December

The Autumn/Winter edition of The Tree Council newsletter Tree Talk is available here

December Forum

The recent South Norfolk Tree Warden Forum was a great success. Many many thanks to  Jamie Foster who gave an enlightening presentation followed by an informative walk through the Poringland Community Woodland.

Tree Wardens feedback on the forum.

Many thanks to you for organising yesterday’s event. I found it fascinating
and informative but, at the same time, quite depressing regarding the
uncertain future facing much of our woodland. Jamie’s views on how best to
manage our trees provide much food for thought and obviously calls into
question much perceived wisdom. It would be interesting to follow his
thinking as this whole issue evolves and his ideas bear fruit, or not, as
the case may be. Looking forward to more such in future.

I found the talk very interesting and confirmed many of the things I had observed over the past few years. I think it would be good if other professionals attended this talk, such as Landscape designers, house builders so they can see the importance of planting areas in a sustainable manner.
It also made me realise the enormity of the problem and how trees in the future are going to become even more unpredictable.
Despite the appalling weather is was time well spent

Another enjoyable, excellent and informative morning – despite the rain, learned a lot; Please keep them coming, we have the enthusiasm, but we can never have enough tree knowledge

September

The latest issue of Tree Guardian is available here

August

 

South Norfolk Tree Warden Badges available NOW!

We have had a quantity of badges made for our Tree Warden Network. These will be available to purchase at our Forum meetings. The price will cover the costs.

 

The Summer Edition of Tree Guardian is now available click here

 

July 

Several of our Tree Wardens attended this event to promote the South Norfolk Tree Warden Network. Over 100 people participated in a Tree ID Challenge. We also gave away a number of tree saplings donated by wardens. Thanks to everyone who helped make the day such a great success. Go to the gallery to see some photos.

 

June

 

The latest Woodland Trust Newsletter can be found here

 

Report from Jamie Foster

Subject: Structural Failure caused by SOD/die back

To view Jamie’s Pictures click on the Link below:

SNTWNDangerZonefotos

The pictures attached are taken from the area shown on the map below. The shearing of the Oak occurred at approx 11:30am 07/06/2017, in moderate winds of 20mph (gusting up to 30mph) and 90% + humidity. The Oak has a few tell tale signs of SOD/die back but only when very closely looked at (leaf, twigs and bleeds). The signs are very obvious when dissecting it (we have kept the whole tree). The tree looked healthy to the untrained eye with only a canopy of small deformed leaves dripping from the end of the branches and a small amount of staining on the trunk. The bleeds were more obvious in the top canopy.
The trunk is solid with no classic signs of specific or non specific rot. The hart wood was saturated with water/sap as if it had been pressurised. The sap wood was dry.
The tree appears to have blown itself apart – humid moderate wind, causing maximum water draw, the sap wood being broken down by SOD/dieback and not functioning correctly meant the water is being forced into hart wood and causing the structural failure at the weakest point (just below the bowl of the crown or 10-15ft from ground), the moderate wind was all that was needed to shear 3ft of what appears to be solid Oak. I have never witnessed anything quite like this.
The sap wood on the structural branches has also started to separate from the hart wood, where the canopy hit the ground (in the same way as peeling the twigs). Without question the biochemistry of the internal structure of the tree (lignin and cellulose that make up the main building blokes) is being broken down by a fungus.

The other pictures of the Scots Pine and Oak are from the next garden, all have occurred in the last 5 months. They are all mature/veteran Scots Pine all with specific rot in the centre and 3-4 inches of solid sap wood that has just collapsed. You can see all the fungal spores on the crumpled sap wood. You can see tiny bleeds on the trunks and twigs they have all the normal SOD/die back signs. Again the trees that have sheared appear to be the healthier ones with an average canopy. All the trees are in a very sheltered area that hasn’t changed for many decades.

It appears trees in a stressed situation (Poor ground conditions, other trees/shrubs with more vigour competing for resources etc) are dying from the top down as they can’t get water up to the canopy and sugar down to the roots, so they are steadily dying (later in leaf each year, less leaf each year and then August time become a dead tree).
It should be noted that each species of tree and at different ages will deal with the same stress differently e.g a mature Oak will cope with ground compaction better than a Veteran Beech (Oak has a hart root – sophisticated, Beech a hat sand Root system which only goes 18 inches deep no matter how big the tree is).

If a tree is less stressed it appears to be trying to deal with the fungal attack by trying to produce lots of smaller than average leaves/needles and only at the tips of the branches e.g. the last 2 ft of a mature Oak. This is exaggerating the wind leverage and collapse/summer branch drop potential caused by humidity. Humidity often peaks at 4.00 – 6.00pm Which is when people are often under trees especially big beautiful Beech, Oak and Pines!!!

Jamie

May

Friends of Swardeston Common Project

Derek Barber & Simon Pithers (Swardeston TWs) have been leading a community project to restore Swardeston Common to its former glory. Click here to read what they have achieved in just six months! To view a short slideshow follow this link.

Hales Roundabout Planting Scheme

Phil Grimes (Hales TW) has been liaising with his PC and Norfolk Highways to have some appropriate planting incorporated within a new roundabout scheme. Click Here to view the plans. Photographs of the planting will follow in Q1 2018.

Pollards and Wildlife

Helen Baczkowsk, Conservation Officer for Norfolk Wildlife Trust spoke about the relationship between Tree Pollarding and Wildlife at our April Forum. The handout she provided can be found here.

Survey for Tree Wardens attending our recent AGM & Forum

Please follow the link to respond. All responses are anonymous and will help shape future meetings. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/R9DK8VY

Rethinking Ancient Woodland: The Archaeology and History of Woods in Norfolk – Gerry Barnes, Tom Williamson – Google Books

‘Gerry Barnes is a leading authority on British Native Trees and Woodland and led an exploration of Woodland pasture for the East Anglian Tree Wardens Forum, which we hosted last September.
This book is a must have/must read for all South Norfolk Tree Wardens who want to understand their local area.’

To view a preview of this book follow this Link

April

South Norfolk Tree Warden Network AGM

Some pictures from our recent AGM. Alan, Joan & Cameron from Waveney Tree Specialists explaining and demonstrating how to pollard a tree.

Read Henry Gowman’s report of the day here

Follow the Link to view  the National Hedgelaying Society Website

How many tree species are there in the world?

Follow the link above to find out!

Latest Woodland Trust Newsletter is here

March

South Norfolk Link Magazine

The Spring edition of Link Magazine features a short article on our network. If you missed it follow the link above and go to Page 5.

1st Anniversary Forum & AGM

Our 1st Anniversary Forum & AGM takes place on Saturday 8th April 09:30-13:00 at Poringland Community Centre. All Tree Wardens should have received an invitation from SNTWN . If you haven’t been contacted please let us know. Click here.

To read the latest edition of Tree Guardian published by The Tree Council click here

February

To read the latest Newsletter follow the link Woodland Trust

Woodland Trust Newsletter

South Norfolk Community Awards

The South Norfolk Tree Warden Network had two candidates shortlisted for an award at this year’s event. Henry Gowman and Chris Brooks were ‘head to head’ for the Environmental Champion of the Year award. In the end Chris (Tree Warden Scole) got the nod. Great to see the work carried out by our wardens throughout South Norfolk is getting the recognition it deserves. 

Sunday 26th February East Hills Wood Project 

Work on this project continues and Pauline Williamson (Costessey TW) would welcome help from fellow Tree Wardens. See her note below for details. Pauline can be contacted directly…📞01603 742491 or 📧 p_m_williamson@hotmail.com

Hi Henry. Just a short one to let you know we are now definitely planning another session for the community to assist with bramble clearance in East Hills Wood on Sunday 26th Feb from 11 – 3, and would appreciate it if you could circulate this to the Tree Wardens. We shall meet in the Car Park to the woods on Longwater Lane Costessey, just opposite Pyms Estate Agents. Stout shoes, warm clothes and if possible tough thornproof garden gloves are recommended, but we shall provide the necessary tools for the work. It would be great to have the support from some of the Tree Wardens.

Tree Warden vacancies 

We have a number of Parishes that have no active Warden. We have contacted each of the Parishes  to encourage them to fill the position. However  if any body knows someone who would make a good Tree  Warden please ask them to put themselves forward to the relevant Parish Council. For details of the vacant posts follow the link. Vacancies  

 

January 

South Norfolk Tree Warden Forum

January’s forum included presentations from two of our Tree Wardens Pauline

Williamson (Cotessey) and Dr Anne Edwards (Hethersett) . Pauline’s presentation on the East Hills Wood project is available here.

Anne spoke of Tree disease and highlighted a particularly useful website Observatree and a slide (see below) from the James Hutton Institute which lists alternative tree species to Ash.

 

The latest edition of the Woodland Trust Newsletter is now available.

Planting Project at Norwich Research Park

ADVANCE NOTICE: Following on from discussions between SNTWN and Norwich Research Park there is to be a mass tree planting exercise in their grounds, on Tuesday 7th February. SNTWN have helped in designing the planting scheme and choosing the varieties, and we will also be overseeing the ordering process. The project will be paid for by NRP.
There will be several hundred trees to plant and NRP are asking the people who are employed in the various companies on the site to take part. Many of these people will be willing volunteers but inexperienced tree planters and so I would very much appreciate as many of you as possible coming along and taking part, both to plant trees and make sure your fellow planters are going about it correctly. If you would like tuition and practice in tree planting, then this event is ideal for you. A light lunch and beverages will be provided.
This promises to be a enjoyable, practical and fun day – I will have a bit more detail to give out at our meeting but please put the date in your diary.
With best wishes,
Henry Gowman
Chair SNTWN

January

Our next meeting of the network will be at 7:00pm on Wednesday 18th January. As usual we shall be using the meeting room at SNC offices at Long Stratton.