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'The Importance of trees'
Article by
Joćo Pedro Barros
Featuring the Woodland Trust's
Jill Butler and Ted Green
The ancient oaks of Parque National da Peneda- Geres, northern Portugal.
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Key Contacts:
The ATF seeks a person to act as a link person to groups and ancient
tree activity in Portugal
Contact us if you would like to know more.
The article describes the work that Ted Green
and Jill Butler have been doing around the world, stressing the importance
of ancient trees and trying to make them respected as monuments. They are
not just heritage, they are living heritage. A cathedral is just stone, the
paintings on the wall were made by just one person, but these trees, if you
believe in God, were made by Him. And some have over 1000 years, they are
older than Portugal or England. We have a moral duty to look out for them,
says Ted Green in the article.
Green and Butler travelled to Portugal to attend an event organized by the
Portuguese Arboricultural Society, and visited some of the most important
tree sanctuaries in the country. The duo said it was a mistake not to come
earlier and were impressed with some ancient practices that are still
passed from older generations in the Portuguese countryside.
The magazine in which the article was published is called Tabu, which is a
supplement
of the weekly newspaper Sol which sells around 60.000 copies per
edition. The article was written by journalist Joćo Pedro Barros.
Ted Green meets Henrique Carvalho and Snr Antonio and an
ancient Portugese oak.Many of the largest oaks of the Parque National da
Peneda-Geres are in the Mate da Albergaria near the Portela de Leonte at
855m. Here there are in total about 5000 ha of ancient oak wood pasture and
possibly 1000 big old oaks. They say in this part of the Europe 9 months of
winter and 3 months of hell and for the oaks here the temperature can rise
to 35-40 degrees Centigrade in summer and down to more than - 5 degrees C in
winter. Clearly it is fine for these old trees that appear happy on the acid
granite rocks of the area. Sadly the forest stops at the Spanish border. On
the spanish side of the mountain the forest has been lost completely by
fire.
Follow Jill and Ted's adventures.
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