Mapping Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees in Panhandle/Stonefall Park
January
2023
Members of Harrogate and Stonefall Action Group measured and checked the trees in Panhandle / Stonefield Park to identify the ancient, veteran and notable trees in the area, which were then recorded on the Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Inventory.
Laura Buckley, a member of Hookstone and Stonefall Action Group (HASAG) and a volunteer with the Woodland Trust, who has had training on collecting interesting information on ancient, veteran and notable trees, took a walk around Stonefall Park with other HASAG members to look at several trees to try to identify which category they might fit into. The notable features are species (different species have a different lifespan); circumference (generally above 3m circumference); state and health/decay of the specimen (e.g. broken limbs/ holes and hollows/ cavities) and bracket and base fungi. The data was then recorded with its GPS location and passed on to Ros Evans, a representative of the Woodland Trust, to transfer to the Woodlands Trust database. Ros recently gave a talk at the HASAG AGM.
This project to map the oldest and most important trees in the UK started in 2004 and information on the trees went online in 2011. The website ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk gives information on the definition of the tree categories and how to record the information which can then be verified by an expert from the Trust.
A member of HASAG looked up the Dalby willow – 4.8m in diameter - which can be found on the Dalby estate near Panhandle Park, and it suggested that it could be 170 years old, but not as old as some of the oaks found in Panhandle Park.