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Habitat surveys

Ancient tree survey

Ancient trees in Leicestershire

Flowering Fields survey

Pondamonium survey

Wooded Wonders survey

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Ancient tree survey

The hunt for ancient trees in Leicestershire and Rutland has resulted in over 1,000 records.

Ancient trees support many species of birds, bats and insects. Many of our threatened species depend on them for food and shelter and the holes and hollows provide homes for over twenty species of nesting birds, including woodpeckers, tits and owls. Seven species of bat roost in tree hollows during the day. Further, hundreds of different mini-beasts depend totally on very old trees, feeding on dead wood, fungi and even on each other! Nearly 100 species of these are nationally rare.

People are asked to send records of any ancient trees that they come across, with an approximate age. To age a tree people are asked to give it a hug! Using this to measure the circumference of the trunk at about 1.3m up from the ground (approx. chest height on an adult), the age can be worked out. Most trees growing on their own have an average of 2.5cm of girth for each year of their life.

Many of the trees recorded are hundreds of years old and to help bring in more information a flier has been produced by the the Community Heritage Initiative on how to approximately age trees. The oldest tree discovered as part of the project to-date is thought to be over 1000 years old and was recorded in the Domesday Book so we have historical evidence to verify its age.

As part of the Biodiversity Action Plan, a strategy to safeguard the areas conservation interest, ancient trees are highlighted as one of the rarest homes for the area’s wildlife and this makes finding and recording them of great importance. To be of particular conservation interest, and to be classified as ancient, trees need to be 3.77m in circumfrence or for ash trees 3.2m

You can download a booklet that contains more detailed information about measuring and ageing trees (pdf document, 398kb), as well as an ancient tree survey form (pdf document, 60kb) to send in records.The Community Heritage Initiative also runs popular training sessions on how to record this countryside feature.

Produced by the Community Heritage Initiative, which was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Rutland County Council