Into the belly of the beast

When it comes to wise old hollowing trees, it would seem almost rude not to invade it's personal space, at least a little. Or at least that's what I tell myself as I find myself shuffling back amongst the leaf litter, shimmying up hollowing trunks or diving head first into the belly of the beast.

As fun as this is for me, a hollow tree is also a good reminder of the importance of its life cycle for a woodland. Eventually all woody giants will succumb to the inevitable and an array of fungi will begin the recycling process, releasing the trees nutrients back into the soil, ready to keep their neighbours happy and the woodlands alive. In the process they will have lay host to a myriad of other lives, beautifully entwined in a cycle of life and death on a scale much longer than our own. As limbs fall and trunks hollow, new microclimates are created, nesting sites formed and micro and macro communities developed. Standing dead trees are a critical part of the forest, and the resulting deadwood seems such a paradoxical term since it actually supports so much life.

Worldwide, 18% of birds nest in tree cavities. In the UK alone, over 1700 species of invertebrate utilise deadwood and three quarters of our British bats roost in the nooks and crannies of trees. Deadwood is used by one of the UK's rarest earthworm species and is critical to the life cycle of the stag beetle (classed as Near Threatened across Europe). Research published earlier this month shows that the importance of hollowing trees is still being realised; the common toad may in fact be a tree climber too (I always knew me and toads had stuff in common).

A selection of very beautiful hollow trees. It should go without saying that I won't always climb a tree. If it looks too delicate (or has a sleeping fox inside..!) I'll keep well clear and will always ensure no damage comes from my eager toes!

Recent research predicts that the UK could be home to ~2 million veteran trees, most of these currently unrecorded. Despite their importance, ancient trees and ancient woodlands are still under constant threat from development. In an insane twist of unsurprising policy - ancient trees don't actually have automatic legal protection. Although the planning framework says planning permission should be refused if it will cause damage to ancient woodlands or ancient trees, there are loopholes that can and will be exploited since it's OK if "there are wholly exceptional reasons" or "a suitable compensation strategy in place". I don't think its subjective to say that there's no meaningful compensation for the destruction of an irreplaceable habitat that takes hundreds and thousands of years to form.

So, next time you see a wooded veteran, I hope you'll take a moment to stick your head in the hollow and give a thought to the awesome life cycle of a majestic tree. The life it supports, the carbon is stores and the wonder it can conjure. What an honour to meet these elders for a brief moment or two on their epic journeys.

If you'd like to learn more about the protection ancient trees have (or don't have!) in the UK, head here for a good overview. Have you met any hollowing trees? I'd love to hear about them!