With Swindon Ranger David Boase

TREES are obviously a large part of my life. When I’m not marvelling at them, I’m managing them, coppicing them, planting them, or removing them if they become dangerous.

This is all fine though, and I never tire of it, for I know that I have trees to thank for my very existence.

As much as they are a part of my life, they are a part of everyone’s. Until I became a ranger, I never gave them much thought.

Not nearly as much as they deserve, in any case. So today I’d like to briefly talk about trees, and celebrate their awesomeness!

Trees and plants are often talked about as being two separate things. If you visit a garden centre today, you’ll find that trees and plants are even given their own departments.

There’s very good reason; you wouldn’t want to go planting a nice row of cherry trees in your window box, or create a shady place to sit under a pansy.

It is true however, that trees and plants are exactly the same, with the only difference being that trees are woody perennials that tend to live the longest and grow larger.

Growing so tall and heavy, trees require and consume a great deal of energy. Drinking huge amounts of water and essential nutrients up through their roots, trees fuel photosynthesis up in their leaves. This creates the components needed for massive and continual growth.

A mature oak can use over 50 gallons a day in summer, and it should be no surprise that a 200-year-old English oak can easily weigh upwards of 15 tonnes, or to put it another way, two double-decker buses.

If you listen to the trunk of a tree in late spring with a stethoscope, you can actually hear the water being drawn up inside.

Not through big clumsy pipes, but a system of vessels so tightly packed, that they can’t easily be seen with the naked eye. Rather, when we cut a tree we see rings, one for each year of a tree’s life, which tells a life story that speaks of hot summers and harsh winters, droughts and events long since passed.

A funny quote I keep seeing written is: ‘Imagine if trees gave off wifi signals, we would be planting so many trees and we'd probably save the planet. Too bad they only produce the oxygen we breathe.’ It’s so true. The lungs of our planet, trees deserve our gratitude and care above all, for in the simple act of being, they have nurtured a world that we can all live in.