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Ancient trees and woodland by the canals


What could be nicer on a hot summer’s day than seeking shade under a big leafy tree and watching the canal boats float by?

Trees are part of the beautiful natural environment of the canals. They support a wide range of wildlife and have provided shelter for man for centuries.

Britain's canals and rivers are lucky to be home to tens of thousands of trees and publicly accessible woodlands. But that's not all, we also (perhaps surprisingly) have a number of ancient trees living close to our towpaths.

For the first time we have plotted these ancient trees, along with publicly accessible woodlands, onto our interactive canal maps so you can find trees near you and visit these remarkable living monuments

Fascinating fact
Trees are like people, they shrink with age. Therefore, although ancient trees are very 'fat' they are generally not very tall!

The Ancient Tree Hunt
The Ancient Tree Hunt has been running since 2004 and closes in autumn 2011. It has already involved thousands of people recording 25,000 sightings of ancient trees in their area. By 2011, the Woodland Trust want that figure to rise to 100,000. This will help them create a living database of ancient trees, and so enable them to properly care for them.

Can you help?
Do you know of an ancient tree? Or a tree which could possibly be 'ancient'?

Read the Woodland Trust's guide to recognising ancient trees

Record an ancient tree

Last updated: 05/04/2011

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