This large tree fell on a path during Storm Ciara on Sunday, February 9th. The path is the second on the right after entering Spinney Lane (see arrow on map alongside) and it is blocking the path, unless you are really determined to get through! Now cleared! It was on the big side for the Friends to clear, so the Council has been informed. No doubt they have plenty of debris to clear – hopefully they will be able to get to it soon.
More substantial trees have since fallen as shown below:
The year is now October 2020 and the stump is sprouting again. There’s life in the Big Fella still.
The reading of the rings
Starting from outside, the red-brown bark surrounds yellow sapwood with brown heartwood in the middle. The bark brings the leaves’ products of photosynthesis down to build a new layer of the sapwood each year while the sapwood conducts water upwards from the roots to the whole tree canopy. Heartwood is dead sapwood and only contributes strength to the trunk and branches. The proportions are different in branches (below).
It was clear from the trunk that, in the past, many branches had been trimmed off.
The bark started to heal over the stumps, but before this was complete, the wood had rotted. Bark can only lay down new wood on a sound surface. Poplar is not rated as a ‘durable’ wood, meaning that dead wood does not resist decay well.
Going back to the second picture, on the left is a branch stump which successfully healed over. The blackened cut surface was partially exposed by a felling cut. In contrast, on the right is a pocket of rot which started when a branch was cut off. It eventually closed over, but never quite healed properly, as can be seen (below). A slight ‘witness’ occurs to this day in the bark surface, although, without seeing the cut stump, it would not be apparent.
Oh, you want to know how old the tree was? The picture (below) shows the rings marked (very faint) in 10’s
They add up to 110, give or take a few. So the tree started life about 1910. The two healed-over branches were cut some 50 years ago, around the time that the old fire station was built and possibly connected with clearing low-growing vegetation in the vicinity of the access road.
Lastly, a piece of branch from up in the tree canopy below shows some really good growths of moss and lichens (pronounced litch-ens or like-ens). Lichens are combinations of a fungus and an algae living as one organism.
On the left is of the north-facing and damper side and on the right, the south-facing and drier side.
Not necessarily ‘The bigger they come, the harder they fall’
Until a few days ago, just to the left of and in front of the old fire station were two trees, a sycamore and a very large poplar. Probably a hybrid black poplar, to be more precise (to left in picture above, leaves shown below).
This young Beech tree was felled just off Harpenden Road on or around 29th July. We have been planting trees on the Heath over the winter, so it is disheartening when this happens. Do you know anything about it? – if so, contact FoBH chairman by clicking FoBH Mail in the right-hand column.
On the left above the tree as it was and on the right the location. The tree was cleanly sawn off with a handsaw and left as shown.
Images from Google Street View dated April 2019 and Google maps.
This large ash tree recently came down partially blocking this path to the WW2 water tank, which can just be seen in the background. The tree broke off near the top of the roots, see inset image. Fortunately, it did not fall towards the tank, which is still threatened by a large sycamore only inches away. The Council has agreed to deal with the ash tree.
The first Friends of Bernards Heath Tree Walk on Sunday 1st July was led by Roger Miles and as you can see from the photo attracted a group of over 20 people.
We explored several areas of woodland to the East and West of Harpenden Road finding examples of the trees in the list, (probably not exhaustive). Sadly, there appear to be a few examples of Ash dieback on young trees in the area.
Below are two examples of trees you might like to look out for. On the left there are a few Hornbeams with their characteristic ribbed trunks near Heath Farm Lane (there are many more in Beech Bottom Dyke). On the right, Aspen, the tree with its fluttering leaves, on a path closer to the old Fire Station.
Many thanks to Roger Miles of the Friends of Bernards Heath Committee for giving us the benefit of his exhaustive knowledge of the flora on the Heath.
Several trees on the Heath have succumbed to winter gales, some because of the ‘sail’ effects of ivy and the wind drag it causes, and others, including this dead hawthorn, to old age. This latter tree has fallen across the path along Townsend Drive.
