THE NEWSPAPER for TREES , WOODS and PEOPLE Sap Rising Issue | Spring 2016 | Free

sap rising issue | spring 2016 | free TREE STORIES, GREEN MEN, WOODWORK, ART, NEST-BUILDING, SEASONAL FOOD AND MUCH MORE! THE NEWSPAPER FOR TREES, WOODS AND PEOPLE “ “ ‘The Artist’s Tree’ by Alice Pattullo | SAP RISING BLUEBELL WOODS | LEAF! LEAF! Woodlands are not just a gathering ‘How does a moth experience the swooning scent of of trees. Paul Rutter explains how so many bluebells? In the soft light of the wood they they support more life than any glow like phosphorescent waters, casting a misty blue WOODFACT other habitat in Britain. Did you know that 60% of penumbra like the moon’s at a change in the weather. woodland wildlife is in decline? SPRING IS A TIME OF MOVEMENT AND NEW LIFE. It blurs the blue meniscus lapping at the trees, As days lengthen and soils warm, the TREES OF LIFE enzymes in trees turn food starch into obscuring the ground, floating them.’ sucrose sugars – more sugar causes a flow of We need trees and woods more than ever. As we water into the cells, through osmosis, and a begin to experience the effects of climate change, from ‘Bluebell Picnic’ by Roger Deakin movement of water from soil to root pushes trees and woods are becoming increasingly sugary sap through the tree, enabling the important in mitigating the impact. Because of growth of buds and new leaves. Birdsong the pressure that human activity has placed on loudens, too, expressing a sense of urgency the natural world, woodlands have become ever in the hedges and trees as different species more precious for supporting and sustaining life. begin crafting new nests for new broods. A variety of plants, insects, birds, bats and other We see the arrival of spring in the pale wildlife have found their own niche in or around yellow of primrose blooms or the thick trees in which to live and reproduce. green of clustering bluebell leaves. We hear Our most ecologically valuable woodlands have often existed continuously for centuries as the birds chorus at dawn and dusk, and all day THE CLACTON their song grows, becoming the voice of fragments of much larger forests. The remaining SPEARHEAD 450,000 BC ancient woodlands, although much smaller, have spring. We also feel this movement between Two ice-ages-ago a yew branch is made become important ‘time capsules’. These precious into a spearhead and lost at what is winter and spring: the warmer air from the now Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Rediscovered landscapes now harbour soils, plants and wildlife south-west seems to blow optimism our in 1911, it is one of the oldest-known that have not been damaged by modern fertilisers wooden human artefacts and way, while the budding trees and nest-busy indicates woodworking. and herbicides, over-grazing, ploughing, housing hedgerows compel us to move outside, to developments, or compaction and water-logging Editor walk, to explore. It is a time for rekindling Adrian Cooper often synonymous with industrialised forestry. friendships with neighbours, both human Art Direction Everything in these precious tree and woodland Gracie Burnett and animal. It is a time to emerge from ecologies is connected. The light, humidity, varying our winter dormancy and look anew at the Resident Storyteller temperatures of the soil, altitude, the local climate, Martin Maudsley world around us. the direction of slope and the type of management Throughout this year and next, Cover & Timeline Artist it has been subject to over previous centuries: all Alice Pattullo Common Ground and the Woodland have an impact on the character and ecosystem of Illustrators Trust is creating LEAF!, a series of seasonal a woodland. No two woodlands are the same. And Romy Blumel newspapers celebrating the cultural and the more complex these ecosystems, the richer the Matthew Richardson practical relationship between trees and biodiversity. The richer the biodiversity, the more Bea Forshall communities. We will be sharing tree Tim Hunkin robust and resilient the ecosystem becomes. stories, art, poetry, articles, tree maps, and Soil, undisturbed under the tree for centuries, Design ideas to help get us all talking about and is home to microscopic mycorrhizal fungi, which Common Ground celebrating the trees in our parks, orchards, Little Toller Books What is your tree story? The artist Romy Blumel shared her story with this ‘Tree of Life’. are crucial for long-term survival of trees. These allotments, woods, copses, spinneys and fungi have a symbiotic relationship with trees ‘Bluebells in Delcombe Wood’ by Nicholas Hely Hutchinson. Font forests. Our first issue is bursting with Sabon & Alice New LEAF! resident storyteller, Martin hope of hearing the first returning chiffchaff of the and most other plants. They grow in and around stories inspired by the spring instinct to year. Its distinctive call – like squeaking sneakers the roots absorbing carbohydrates from the tree colonised by many species of insects and fungi. Printing build nests. Birds, bats, bees, people: all Maudsley, steps out into the woods – is a springtime serenade that emotionally and giving back trace elements from rock and the These specialist insects and fungi break down Mortons Print, Lincolnshire WILDWOOD 5000 BC make their homes with trees. Branches, searching for the signs of spring. translates as: ‘all’s well with the world once soil to the tree and increasing the available water the dead wood fibres including the heartwood of Paper sticks, trunks, forks, hollows: these are the Trees, trees and more trees! 50% FSC and 50% recycled more’. If we’re lucky we might also catch sight of by extending the reach of the roots (reducing the tree, returning nutrients to the soil which are A dynamic patchwork of woodland raw materials that animals and people use and areas of grassland in which the a brimstone butterfly, fluttering slowly through stress to the tree during drought). They may, it is then recycled by the tree. Other insects such as THE TREES Distributed by grazing of deer and auroch (wild for building places to shelter in and raise the open spaces of the trees like a fragment of believed, also link trees together to prevent diseases hoverflies and bees need wildflowers as a nectar oxen) play an important part: shifting Woodland Trust THROUGH THE their young. sunshine; its buttery yellow colour allegedly giving source, which in turn pollinate plants in and by Philip Larkin grassland is invaded by trees. The Little Toller Books spreading. There are also many other micro- first trees to appear after the last When we asked the artist Alice Pattullo to WOODS rise to the word butterfly itself. According to Tove organisms and larger life forms found in woodland around the woodland. Ice Age were pine and birch, then Published by tell us her tree story, she replied by sending The trees are coming into leaf hazel. Ash appears relatively early Common Ground Jansson’s literary creature, Moomintroll, to see a soil, which all play a part in aerating the soil and A plant that is synonymous with ancient but sparsely. By the fifth millennium Lower Dairy us the wonderful artwork on the front cover. Spring is the season of signs. From the first yellow butterfly as your first of the year foretells breaking down organic material to create new soil. woodland in Britain is the bluebell Hyacinthoides BC, in the late Mesolithic, wildwood Toller Fratrum Like something almost being said; This is her ‘Artist’s Tree’. It is her story, twitchings of new life after winter’s solstice, there’s a fine year ahead. Amongst so many numinous As trees age the corky external bark of the non-scripta. Voted the UK’s favourite wild flower was dominated by lime in Lowland Dorset DT2 0EL The recent buds relax and spread, England, by oak and hazel in Wales, www.commonground.org.uk her voice, and it maps out why trees are a spring-tide of awakenings to be sensed and seasonal auguries, who could argue? trees thickens and becomes fissured, which is an a few years ago, it produces the iconic scene in western England, and south Scotland, Woodland Trust important to her, providing the materials savoured. First amongst the many floral harbingers As spring unfurls and uncurls, the leaves of increasingly attractive habitat to lichen, moss, our spring woodlands when a blue carpet appears Their greenness is a kind of grief. by elm and hazel in most of Ireland, Kempton Way and birch and pine in the Grantham for her craft and feeding her imagination. of spring is the primrose – literally ‘first flower’ – beech trees become luminous lime-green in the moths and flies. Trees with irregular stems and before the canopy shuts out the light. Scottish Highlands. Lincolnshire NG31 6LL We would like you to join Alice and the which graces woodlands and edgelands any time sunlight; like the stained-glass windows of a great branch formation are favoured by the lichens, A slow coloniser, native bluebells are an www.woodlandtrust.org.uk Is it that they are born again other people who have contributed to LEAF! from New Year to early summer. In January, a walk green cathedral. The warmer air is suffused with and these are often trees that have grown in open indicator of ancient woodland, and can also be And we grow old? No, they die too. by telling us why trees and woods are through the woods is often punctuated by primrose the sweet and savoury smell of wild garlic, also woodland where the living branches are low to the found along hedgerows and road verges. It prefers LEAF! © COMMON GROUND 2016 important to you and your community. Is petals – lemon-sherbet yellow amongst the leaf known as ‘ramsons’, emerging in huge swathes ground and grow at right angles to the stem.

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