How To Build A Thousand-Year-Old Tree

In this piece for Noēma , Matthew Ponsford heads deep into Sherwood Forest to find some of the UK’s oldest trees, such as The Major, who “sprouted from an acorn here at least eight centuries ago.” Ponsford explores how these ancient trees provide vital habitats for diverse species and looks into how arborists are now deploying “veteranization” to younger trees to recreate these habitats as the ancients die out. While the methods of veteranization—basically beating up young trees—are surprising, it could prove key to maintaining biodiversity.

Place a hand against its lichen-crusted bark, and its hard flesh feels as cool and sturdy as a cathedral’s timbers. Up close, it’s possible to see signs of rot and inhabitation between the band-aids Harris’s predecessors have placed to try to keep the tree alive. The walking sticks, which replaced a system of iron chains (some of them are still stuck fast in the limbs), protect the tree’s trunk from being torn apart by the cantilevered weight of its branches. A macabre process of “cannibalization” began centuries ago, during which time the tree has basically consumed its own rotting, pulpy core, creating a 10-foot high cavern in the trunk. Harris is one of the few people alive to have been in there, where bugs crawl and beefsteak fungus erupts. Some previous caretaker lined parts of the cavity with lead, and you can see into the lower branches, which are hollow and have been reinforced with planks. Harris likened it to being inside the prow of a ship.