Tree Weaver

Located at Al Borg Street and at the entrance of the Cairo tower, the National Tree of India salutes you, the tree celebrated by the Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

It is one of the oldest banyan trees in Cairo, planted in 1868 – the same year poet Laureate Ahmed Shawqi was born. The Indian banyan with its poetic, propagating, dangling aerial roots is reminiscent of Ahmed Shawki’s poetry.

Not only is it one of the oldest banyan trees in Cairo, but according to several sources, it is the only one remaining.

Over the years, the tree has become an icon of Zamalek, with couples, tourists, and children making memories and taking pictures next to it.

These perennial trees are classified among the world’s largest. By nature, banyan trees send their roots downwards, creating branch-like pillars that look like more tree trunks.

The Cubbington pear tree is the second-largest in the country, a local landmark and was England’s tree of the year in 2015. Yet, despite years of protests, it is being felled for a railway line. It sits on the proposed phase one line of the new rail route and its being uprooted once construction begins.

The woods around it in Warwickshire have been blocked off to visitors and a sign erected warning against trespassing. The pear tree is thought to be the second-largest wild pear tree in the country and estimated to be 250 years old. It still bears fruit every year. In spring, blackcaps and chiffchaff are heard singing in the wood, with “wood anemones and a carpet of bluebells surrounding it. Despite its popularity, it is scheduled to be cut down to make way for the HS2 railway development. Once completed, the new line will link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

Until the area was closed off, Cubbington Action Group, which was set up to protest against HS2, had been leading walks to show people the tree. Students from Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire have taken cuttings from it, so that descendants can be created for the local churchyard, schools and villages.

Save Cubbington Wood, another protest group, set up a camp last September in an effort to protect the trees from being felled by contractors, but they were evicted in March. An HS2 spokesperson told the BBC: “Seven million new trees and shrubs will be planted as part of the HS2 programme. The new native woodlands will cover over 9 sq km of land.”

Felling was stopped temporarily because of the coronavirus pandemic, but it is due to resume in September. Sadly, the pear tree appears to be doomed.

Reference https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/17/tree-of-the-week-the-beloved-250-year-old-wild-pear-being-cut-down-for-hs2#img-1

Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and biodiverse Indian forest, has pitted indigenous people, ancient trees, elephants and sloths against the might of bulldozers, trucks and hydraulic jacks, fighting with a single purpose: the extraction of coal.

Yet under a new “self-reliant India” plan by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to boost the economy post-Covid-19 and reduce costly imports, 40 new coalfields in some of India’s most ecologically sensitive forests are to be opened up for commercial mining.

Among them are four huge blocks of Hasdeo Arand’s 420,000 acres of forest in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, which sit above an estimated 5bn tonnes of coal.

It marks a significant shift. The coal industry in India is state-owned, but this auction of 40 new coal blocks will see the creation of a privatised, commercial coal sector in India. Among those bidding for it are India’s rich and powerful industrial giants, including the $14bn (£11bn) Adani group run by the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who operates India’s largest coal power plants and has close ties to Modi.

The coal auction has already proved controversial at both the local and political level. At least seven of the coal blocks up for auction were previously deemed “no go” areas for mining due to their environmentally valuable status and about 80% of the blocks are home to indigenous communities and thick forest cover. Four state governments – West Bengal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh – have written to Modi in opposition or raised legal objections to the auction, and one coal block, which overlapped with the Tadoba tiger reserve in Maharashtra, has already been removed.

Amra, who is an Adivasi, a term used to describe India’s indigenous people, was one of nine local sarpanchs – village leaders – who recently wrote to Modi demanding a stop to the auction in Hasdeo Arand. He said: “If the government gave me the option to give up my life in exchange for no more mining happening in the forest, I would do it in a second.”

Amra has seen first-hand the environmental devastation wreaked by open-cast coal mines. In 2011, two vast open-cast mines were excavated on the forest’s peripheries, ripping up the fragile land and filling the surroundings with pollution, smoke, heat, noise and poison. Crime rose drastically in the area and the elephants that lived in the forest, disoriented by the new hostile conditions, became aggressive, leading to dozens of deaths.

The prospect of more significant blocks of the forest, the largest in India, being handed over to private mining operations was more than Amra could bear. Five villages will be destroyed and more than 6,000 mainly indigenous people displaced, as well as thousands of hectares of trees, torn down for mines and roads.

“If more mining happens everything will change; the natural resources will be gone, our way of life will disappear, everything will be under threat,” he said. “We are tribal people, we cannot go out and live in the cities and no amount of money can ever compensate us. There is no forest like this in the world – cut it down and it can never be replaced.”

While across the world governments have geared towards a “green recovery” post Covid-19 – the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said recently there was “no good reason for any country to include coal” in recovery plans – India is putting fossil fuel at the forefront of its strategy to turn the pandemic into economic opportunity.

“Why cannot India be the world’s largest exporter of coal?” asked Modi as he announced the coal auction project.

Yet with its 45% ash content, making it some of the most polluting coal in the world, there is unlikely to be an international market for Indian coal. In addition, many major factories in India cannot run on “dirty” domestic coal, meaning they will still need to import it from abroad.

There is also a question of necessity. While India is the world’s second largest consumer of coal, and annually imports 247m tonnes, costing more than $20bn (£15bn), India’s electricity demand is forecast to fall by up to 15% over the next five years due to the economic reverberations of Covid-19. Meanwhile, a report this week by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air concluded that the current state-run coal mines of India already have capacity to produce 20% more coal than the expected demand in 2030.

Environmental activists also question why India cannot be weaned off foreign coal through a gradual increase in investment in domestic renewable energy, such as solar. This month, Modi inaugurated Asia’s largest solar farm in the state of Madhya Pradesh. India is the world’s cheapest producer of solar power and the cost of constructing a new solar plant is 14% less than that of a building a new coal plant. With proper investment, it has been estimated that the solar energy industry could generate as many as 1.6m jobs in India by 2022, far more than would be generated by domestic coal.

But India’s joint secretary for coal, Maddirala Nagaraju, said that all the country’s projections showed that demand for coal would increase and insisted that increased domestic coalmining was the “cheapest way of meeting the energy needs of the people”.

“We are the country with the fourth largest coal reserves in the world and we need to provide energy security for over a billion people: coal is the only way,” said Nagaraju. He conceded that there would be “costly trade-offs” in opening up protected forest areas for mining, but said this had the support of local communities who “want the land to be acquired because they get high compensation packages”.

He added: “Yes, some people have objected, but the mining will bring a lot of development, employment and money to these areas. How else will we develop these Adivasi people in central India?”

Among the prominent opponents to the project is the former environment minister, Jairan Ramesh, who also wrote a letter to Modi condemning coal auctions. It was during his time in office that a survey was carried out in 2010 on India’s biggest coalfields and determined that 30% were “no-go areas” due to their biodiversity or resident tiger or elephant populations. Yet since Modi came to power in 2014, that 30% has been reduced to about 5%.

Ramesh alleged this was a direct result of pressure from the powerful corporate coal lobby, Adani in particular. The Adani group is contracted to operate two of the mines currently open in Hasdeo Arand, and has been pushing to expand mining operations in the forest for years, even reportedly offering microloans to local tribal people in order to win their support.

“Adani is behind this,” claims Ramesh. “He is one of the most influential forces on the government.”

“Modi poses as a great environmental champion globally but his track record is one of complete loosening of environmental laws and regulations,” Ramesh added. “The corporate lobbies are just too powerful and in the name of ease for businesses, environment has become the biggest casualty.”

The Adani group rejected the allegations as baseless and politically motivated. A spokesperson said the company: “Has always strived to provide balanced and affordable energy supply to an energy-deprived population of 1.3 billion people whose per capita energy consumption is less than half the world’s average and almost one-tenth of many of the developed economies.

“The Adani Group has been a leading contributor to India’s vision for a balanced energy mix and an enabler of India’s leadership in meeting its [Paris agreement on climate change] target.”

It said it aimed to become the world’s largest renewable energy company by 2025.

Reference https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/08/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-plans-to-fell-ancient-forest-to-create-40-new-coal-fields

Radiate boundless love towards the entire world.

— Siddhārtha Gautama

It’s strange that there are no really ancient yew trees in Ireland.

There are a handful that are reckoned to be 700 to 800 years old, but that’s not really ancient for a tree with a life-expectancy in millennia rather than centuries. But the age of most yew trees tends to be based on educated guesses rather than scientific data. When they’re ancient they are invariably hollow, which makes it impossible to extract cores from them and count the annual rings. Anyway, to my knowledge very few cores have been taken from living Irish trees.

Take the yew that grows in the cloisters of Muckross Abbey near Killarney. It’s always assumed that the tree was planted by the Franciscans when they built the abbey in 1448, giving it an age of over 550 years. It’s much more likely the abbey was built around a tree that was already mature and well-established, making this tree a lot older. There’s plenty of evidence that in earlier times ecclesiastical sites were chosen on the basis that an old yew tree grew there. There are Anglo-Saxon churches in parts of southern England where archaeological evidence has shown that the tree was there before the church. Some of these churches are up to 1,200 years old and the trees are still alive. Choosing to build an abbey round a yew tree is one of many examples of the Christianisation of a much older pagan belief. There is quite a bit of evidence in folklore and mythology indicating that yews were venerated.

They are our largest native evergreen and, when they grow in mixed woodland, the shade they cast and the toxins they secrete in their root systems create an open clearing — the ideal place for a ceremony. Our ancestors also seem to have been impressed by the fact that they remained green and vibrant when all the other large trees had succumbed to winter. They became associated with victory over death. But we also have hard evidence, from bog wood and studies of fossil pollen, that they were once much more widespread than they are today. And the probable reason for their decline is that they were persecuted. Yew foliage is quite poisonous to livestock (and humans) and, while we may have revered yew trees, over the millennia we have shown that we revere cattle and horses even more. There is an ancient yew tree still growing in the Scottish borders and there’s a legend that Pontius Pilate once sat under it. It’s unlikely but not impossible. The tree was certainly mature 2000 years ago and Pontius Pilate, as a Roman civil servant, served on the border between England and Scotland before he was posted to the Holy Land.

Reference https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/dick-warner/yew-trees-are-ancient-friends-247610.html

Wild bison will roam British woodland for the first time in more than 6,000 years when they are reintroduced in Kent

1. Bison are being introduced to Blean Woods in Kent to restore an ancient habitat
2. They will be enclosed despite being ‘peaceful’ and not posing a threat to humans
3. European bison are the closest relative to steppe bison that once roamed the UK
4. It is thought European bison grazed here thousands of years ago – but none of their bones have ever been found under British soil
5. However, their bones have turned up under North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland – the land bridge that connected UK to Europe

Four wild bison will be released into woodland in Kent by spring 2022 as part of a plan to naturally boost Britain’s wildlife habitats.
The European bison will live in a cordoned-off area of Blean Woods near Canterbury, close to the University of Kent campus.

Although they are thought to have grazed here thousands of years ago, no bison bones have ever been found under our soil.

Their bones have, however, turned up under the North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland – the land bridge that connected the UK to Europe.

The lottery-funded project, led by Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust, aims to use the grazing 6ft-tall beasts, which can weigh up to 1,000kg (2,200lbs) to help rejuvenate the native woodlands.

It is known as an ‘ecosystem engineer’ because of its ability to create and improve habitats for other species.

European bison – the continent’s largest land mammal – is the closest living relative to ancient steppe bison that once roamed Britain, becoming extinct at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

The enormous animals are largely peaceful and live on a diet of grasses and other forms of vegetation.

They are not dangerous animals and only manifest aggression in response to prolonged disturbance at close range, according to a 2018 study.

Despite being peaceful, the closely-knit herd will be introduced into a fenced enclosure away from public footpaths.

They will be within a wider 500 hectare (1,200 acre) patch of land which will also use other grazing animals such as Konik ponies to create varied and healthy habitat.

It will be the first time bison have been introduced to a nature reserve to help woodland thrive in the UK.

‘The partners in this project have long dreamt of restoring the true wild woodlands that have been missing from England for too long,’ said Paul Whitfield, Director General of Wildwood Trust.

‘This will allow people to experience nature in a way they haven’t before, connecting them back to the natural world around them in a deeper and more meaningful way.’

The UK project will likely initially involve four bison who are already acquainted with one another to ensure the herd is a tight group.

The animals will be introduced from a wild population from other similar projects in Europe, according to the Kent Wildlife Trust.

Similar projects across the continent since 2000 have already seen the successfully reintroduced in Poland, Romania and the Netherlands.

Bison are particularly useful as a form of natural environment control because of the unique way in which they graze.

They prefer bark to other parts of plants and trees, which is the opposite to many other large herbivores.

They fell trees by rubbing up against them and then eat the bark, creating areas of space and light in the woods.

It also benefits a range of smaller animals and plants by providing trees which turn into deadwood, offering food and habitat for insects, small mammals and plants.

Bison have shaggy coats and can often be seen rolling around in dry patches of land, a habit called dust bathing.

The practice helps them rid themselves of parasites while simultaneously removing moulting fur.

In Blean Woods, dust bathing would be good for lizards, burrowing wasps and rare arable weeds, while bark stripping would create standing deadwood that benefits fungi and insects such as stag beetles, conservationists say.

Due to their large size and strength, they also create corridors through densely vegetated patches, which joins various swathes of lands and prevents populations of smaller animals from becoming isolated.

Clearing paths also provides more light to the woodland floor which helps plants grow.

‘Without an animal like bison these functions are missing in woodlands, and this project aims to restore those functions,’ a Kent Wildlife Trust spokesperson told MailOnline.

The project is funded by £1,125,000 from the People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund, created to help realise good causes, over a two-year period.

Kent Wildlife Trust owns several woods in the Blean area, one of the largest areas of surviving ancient woodland in England.

It will be responsible for the overall management of the project, including the installation of maintenance of infrastructure, such as fencing.
‘Using missing keystone species like bison to restore natural processes to habitats is the key to creating bio-abundance in our landscape,’ said Paul Hadaway, director of Conservation at Kent Wildlife Trust.

A HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN BISON

European bison previously roamed throughout western, central and south eastern Europe.

Their range originally extended eastward across Europe to the Volga River and the Caucasus Mountains.

The animals are known to historically populate Poland and Belarus, but other countries that are home to the European bison include Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine.

European bison – the continent’s largest land mammal – is the closest living relative to ancient steppe bison that once roamed Britain, becoming extinct at the end of the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

After the Ice Age, man hunted the bison so intensively that it was forced into the most remote corners of Europe.

Although European bison are believed to have grazed in Britain thousands of years ago, no bison bones have ever been found under our soil.

Their bones have, however, turned up under the North Sea from nearly 12,000 years ago on Doggerland – the land bridge that connected the UK to Europe.

European bison (Bison bonasus) went extinct in the wild mainly due to hunting, but habitat degradation and competition with livestock also played a part.

In Europe it became extinct in the wild after World War I.

Occupying German troops killed 600 of the European bison in the Białowieża Forest for sport, meat, hides and horns.

By 1927, the species had been lost from the wild entirely and only 54 individuals survived in European zoos.

Between 1920 and 1928 there were no single European bison in the Białowieża Forest.

The European bison was successfully reintroduced in the Białowieża Forest in 1929 from the animals kept in zoos.

The first two bisons were released into nature to the Białowieża Forest in 1952 and by 1964 more than 100 existed.

Since then there have been re-introductions to forests in Belarus, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia.

Up until now, zoos and wildlife parks have helped save the European bison from extinction, including at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie, Highland, Scotland.

The European bison closely resembles their North American cousin but is considered a separate species.

The European bison’s dense coat is dark to golden brown in colour and is less bushy than that of the American bison.

Both sexes have short horns that project outwards and then curve upwards.

European bison prefer a woodland habitat where they live in small herds browsing on leaves and other vegetation.

Reference https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/bison-to-be-introduced-to-kent-woodland-230138/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/09/wild-bison-reintroduced-15000-years-part-groundbreaking-rewilding/amp/

Located near Polegate, Abbot’s Wood is a great place for a stroll at any time of year, with walking trails, a medieval lake, play area, barbecues and picnic tables.

This ancient woodland is teeming with wildlife. Dormice live in the woodland understory and the extensive network of paths is home to nearly thirty species of butterfly, including the rare pearl-bordered fritillary. In early spring, the extraordinary song of the nightingale can be heard and summer evenings could reward you with encounters with bats, glow worms and the sound of the elusive nightjar.

8th December 1919. The Forestry Commission plants the first trees in the grounds of Eggesford Forest in Devon. They are planted by Lord Clinton and are a combination of beech and larch.

Sowing acorns by hand in a large seed bed in Kennington, Oxfordshire, April 1933.

Lumber Jills operating portable ‘liner’ saw at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, July 1945.

The Soldtrac plough cuts a furrow 10″-14″ deep, turning out a satisfactory turf for planting. Smales Forest, Kielder 1949.

Her Majesty the Queen unveils a stone at Eggesford Forest, Devon, May 1956.

Picking cones from the top of a Serbian spruce using support poles on top of a ladder lashed to a tree at Alice Holt Forest, Hampshire 1963.

Extracting Norway spruce Christmas trees in the New Forest, Hampshire, November 1966.

Lining out machine and transplant trays, Wykeham Nursery, North Yorkshire, August 1971.

Reference ~ https://www.forestryengland.uk