A game-changing year for trees?
It’s not every year that firefighters wrap the world’s largest living tree in an oversized aluminium blanket, notes Vox…
Here is another (very occasional) round-up of tree news articles from around the world – first one since April!
There are reasons. The only real news in the world this year has been Covid-19. This has squeezed out some of the more wacky stories I would previously have noticed.
I have been busy but I am also disillusioned. So many tree stories are either tragic tree disease and felling or attempts to plant, plant, plant. Not much new there.
To cap everything, it is very annoying that every story I point to asks you to accept cookies before you proceed and I know this puts off a lot of readers. So whether I continue with this theme is uncertain.
But for now click on each of the pictures if you would like to see the full stories.
Lone hawthorn on a beach is UK’s best
The Woodland Trust has named the Kippford hawthorn on a windswept cockleshell beach in Dumfries & Galloway as the British Tree of the Year…
Witches’ holm oak takes European title
Meanwhile the European Tree of the Year is the Millennial Carrasca of Lecina, Spain, a holm oak around which witches used to dance…
Looking on the bright side of Storm Arwen
Damage and upheaval also present an opportunity to increase forest diversity, expand the provision of wildlife-rich dead wood and create more variation within plantations, according to the Guardian…
Alternative Christmas tree for Yorkshire village
Appleby’s knitted tree was created in secret over the past year by eight women, reports the BBC…
Old Christmas trees help save Lancashire coastline
Meanwhile across the Pennines burying festive trees on the beach encourages dunes for wildlife and flood defence, says Great British Life…
Trees could live forever – theoretically
According to Scientific American, some trees have overcome storms, droughts, fires and more to survive for thousands of years…
Egyptian church launches planting contest
The Coptic Orthodox Church has announced a tree-planting competition as an initiative to reduce the impact of climate change, reports Egyptian Streets…
Deer damage fire-ravaged areas down under
Sambar deer behaviour is destroying littoral rainforest in Australia, says ABC News…
Ash dieback hits National Trust trees
The Guardian reports that the UK National Trust is to fell at least 30,000 trees…
Canadian village gets on its bike to buy forest
A village on Vancouver Island has bought its own forest and created mountain-bike trails, says BBC Travel…
One of NY’s tallest trees crashes down
A giant white pine in the Adirondacks came crashing down amid an early December windstorm, reports the Democrat & Chronicle…
Opinion: Cheaper houses v mature trees
In an opinion piece for the Guardian in New Zealand, Margaret Stanley says mature trees are key to liveable cities and controversial housing intensification plans must ensure they survive…
Bid to return sacred Australian carvings
In 1949, centuries-old trees covered in First Nations carvings were hacked into with circular saws, removed from Kamilaroi land and distributed around the world – now school students are aiming to repatriate them to New South Wales, says the Guardian…
And finally…
The tales of 10 grisly trees
Meetings of politicians and kings, gruesome murders, untimely deaths, drunken bets and flights of utter fantasy: Britain’s ancient trees have borne witness to them all, reports Country Life…
You can read all my previous tree news posts here…
The Squirrelbasket 
Interesting post, pictures and links. xx
Thanks for taking the trouble to say so 🙂
Thanks, Pat, for compiling this, which I’m just now getting around to reading. There is some good new here 🙂 The hawthorn on the beach is wonderful the way it has reacted to its environment.
Thanks for thanking me…
I will probably try to keep it up occasionally but the longer I leave it the more I have to cram in and it starts to go on a bit…
All the best 🙂