The Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Hunt headed for Belfast last weekend (Sunday 26 September). With similar events in London, Glasgow and Cardiff revealing a wealth of ancient trees on city dwellers’ doorsteps, the Trust was on the hunt for Belfast’s most distinguished veteran trees.
Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, owned by Belfast City Council, extended its leafy arms to approximately 400 tree hunters, including local people and visitors.
The Park’s magnificent veteran trees came under the microscope, and with the help of professional artists, young tree lovers enjoyed a whole range of hands-on crafty activities.
Patrick Cregg, director of the Woodland Trust in Northern Ireland, said: “We’re keen to promote an awareness and appreciation of our country’s oldest trees. Many have seen centuries come and go; so imagine the stories they could tell.
“We want to make sure these trees remain, for the benefit of the landscape, for wildlife and for our future generations. And we’re asking local people to help by keeping a look out for these unsung treasures and recording them on our website. We’ve had a great turnout at the weekend’s event, so hopefully more people will be inspired to take part.”
The Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Hunt is a five-year project to record at least 100,000 of the UK’s oldest trees by 2011. The website has records of more than 69,000 ancient, veteran and notable trees throughout the UK. This includes over 3,000 in Northern Ireland; 584 of which are within the boundary of Belfast City Council.
To join the quest for our oldest trees, visit the Ancient Tree Hunt website, which is packed with tips for tree hunters, including how to recognise an ancient tree, measure its girth and how to identify different species. Find out more and get recording at www.AncientTreeHunt.org.uk
Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
Kaye Coates at the Woodland Trust’s Bangor Office on 028 9127 5787; email kayecoates@woodlandtrust.org.uk or
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121; email media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.
Here in Northern Ireland the Woodland Trust cares for 51 woods. These woods contain a mix of recently planted woodland, mature woodland and ancient woodland (that’s land continuously wooded since at least 1600). We have recently produced the first-ever comprehensive record of Northern Ireland’s ancient woodland; find out more at www.backonthemap.org.uk