I don’t know about you but I slept through the storm last week! I was vaguely aware of the wind but no fence down where I live thank goodness. Not the same for two great trees in town. In Victoria Park a limb from a lime tree had crashed down across the path and on to the children’s play ground and in the Millennium Green part of the huge sycamore tree had been ripped off.
I normally go into the Town Hall on Thursday morning, last Thursday it was all action. One of the Rangers who looks after our open spaces had dashed in to get the ok to buy another chain for a chainsaw, the energy was high. Rangers, that manage all our outdoor spaces, had set to quickly to clear the damage in Victoria Park and make sure that the tree was safe, naturally they were keen to make sure this was made safe as soon as possible. Across town in Millennium Green the damage was trickier to clear up.
Yesterday I discovered that the sycamore there has been recorded as an ancient tree by the Woodland Trust on their website. You can find the record here www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/recording/tree.htm The site is mapping ancient trees across the UK. The tree is probably several hundred years old! The broken limb, exposing the inner part of the trees, shows that it is suffering with several fungi which must have weakened the limb.
Frome Town Council is a member of the Woodland Trust’s Tree Charter that aims to protect trees and woods this is why our Rangers look after trees on the council’s land and plant new trees so that, in the future, all of us will have ancient trees to marvel at.
