Veteran Tree Surveys

Living old trees with veteran characteristics provide an enormous contribution to the size and variety of deadwood habitats in the landscape. One of the most important long-term aims of the management of deadwood ecosystems is to ensure a large and sustainable habitat resource for the associated species. Through the management and protection of veteran trees the continuity of natural communities is allowed to persist, and local ecosystem functioning can be maintained.

Veteran trees are particularly vulnerable to environmental stresses and so conventional tree surgery is sometimes inadvisable. Our surveyors have an extensive case history of carrying out veteran tree surveys and producing detailed management plans for individual trees and large populations of veteran trees. We can provide advice and training to land managers and tree surgeons which will ensure the best care is provided for these special trees.

Historic Parkland Management Plans

Some of the highest concentrations of veteran trees are found in current and former parkland because all parks were developed from an existing landscape, and in most cases features of the pre-park landscape were incorporated into the new enclosure. The landscape designers of the eighteenth century often deliberately incorporated existing old trees into their plans. Parklands have often escaped the intensification of land use practices in farming and forestry in the second half of the 20th Century and so they have become hot spots for both historical and biological conservation.

Ecological Site Classification and Native Woodland Planting Schemes

Ecological Site Classification (ESC) is a system designed by Forest Research to help guide forest managers to select species that are ecologically suited to sites. ESC uses key site factors including grid reference, elevation, soil type, nutrient status, and soil water availability to select suitable species for planting based on the ecological requirements of different tree species and woodland communities, as defined in the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) for Great Britain.