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The trees that hold the secrets to our past… and our future?
Tricia Moxey, today CPRE Essex vice-chairman but a daughter of Ramsgate, reviews a book that is both fascinating and concerning
Trees grow well in Kent and in recent years enthusiasts have been out and about measuring and recording the tallest, oldest and more unusual specimens.
There are some wonderful tall and large-girthed oaks and beeches in the parkland at Knole and other long-established parks. The Majesty Oak standing in Fredville Park, Nonington, was a well-established tree in 1554 when it was called the Fredville Oak – and people travelled to admire it then! Today its girth is 12.36 metres and it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest maiden oak in the United Kingdom.
As a tree grows, it lays down an annual ring of new woody tissue just beneath the bark. The width of each ring will reflect the growing conditions of each specific year – wider in a year of warmth and rain, narrower in dry years. Using many sections of wood from different species, it is possible to chart the relationship between tree ring growth and changes in climatic conditions.
This study is called dendrochronology and can be used to date timbers from buildings and wooden objects. Linking these patterns of growth rings in different species with many and varied datable sources of historic information, it is now possible to plot warmer or colder decades and use these to theorise about the impact of such changes on past civilisations.
In her recently published book Tree Story, The History of the World Written in Rings, Valerie Trouet, an ardent dendrochronologist, details her fascinating story of locating some of the oldest living trees around the world. Once found, their rings were sampled and examined to reveal detailed records of how changes in climate shaped their growth pattern over several centuries.
She discussed her findings with historians and archaeologists and in this eloquently written book poses theories about the link between changes in climate and the rise and fall of earlier civilisations as agricultural production either prospered or failed with dire consequences.
This summer, UK farmers recorded the worst wheat harvest for 40 years due to the recent changes in weather patterns. Fortunately, this is unlikely to lead to widespread famine in the Home Counties thanks to our ability to import grain from other countries.
However, the increasing numbers of devastating hurricanes, plagues of locusts, unseasonal late frosts, summer droughts and increasing levels of soil erosion are some of the challenges facing agriculturalists around the globe. We should all be concerned as food security will become a major issue in the years ahead as climate instability increases and we should seriously consider ways to reduce our own carbon footprints and food miles.
References
Trouet, Valerie. 2020. Tree Story, The History of the World Written in Rings John Hopkins University
Berners-Lee, Mike. 2019. There is No Planet B CUP
Berners-Lee, Mike. 2020. How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything. Kindle Edition
- For further details of the Majesty Oak, visit www.monumentaltrees.com
Tuesday, February 24, 2021
- A number of important documents have yet to emerge. For example, a rigorous transport plan and a finalised air-quality assessment. The latter is critical given that allocations at Teynham will feed extra traffic into AQMAs.
- There seems to be no coherent plan for infrastructure delivery – a key component of the plan given the allocations being proposed near the already crowded Junction 7.
- There seems to have been little or no cooperation with neighbouring boroughs or even parish councils within Swale itself.
The removal of a second consultation might have been understandable if this final version of the plan were similar to that being talked about at the beginning of the consultation process. It is, however, radically different in the following ways:
- There has been a major shift in the balance of housing allocations, away from the west of the borough over to the east, especially around the historic town of Faversham. This is a move that raises many concerns.
- A new large allocation, with accompanying A2 bypass, has appeared around Teynham and Lynsted, to which we are objecting.
- Housing allocations in the AONB around Neames Forstal that were judged “unsuitable” by the council’s own officers have now appeared as part of the housing numbers.
- Most of the housing allocations being proposed are on greenfield sites, many of them on Grade 1 agricultural land – a point to which we are strongly objecting.
Concerns about the rush to submit the plan
The haste with which the plan is being prepared is especially worrying given the concentration of housing in Faversham. If the town is to take a large amount of new housing, it is imperative that the policies concerning the area are carefully worked out to preserve, as far as possible, the unique nature of the town. The rush to submit the plan is likely to prove detrimental.
As Swale does not have a five-year land housing supply, it is open to speculative development proposals, many of which would run counter to the ideas contained in the current plan. Some are already appearing. This is a common situation, and one that, doubtless, is a reason behind Swale’s haste.
Our overriding fear, however, is that this emphasis on haste is ultimately going to prove counterproductive. This is because it is our view that the plan, in its current form, is unlikely to pass independent examination. We are urging Swale to listen to and act upon the comments being made about the plan and to return the plan to the council with appropriate modifications before submitting it to the Secretary of State.
Essentially, this means treating the current consultation not as the final one but as the ‘lost’ second consultation.
The consultation ends on Friday 30 April and we strongly urge residents to make their opinions known if they have not already done so.
Further information
