Jeremy Barrell

Here is the RDC report rdcpublic.blob.core.windows.net/website-upload…

This is not the first time that Camber Sands has been polluted by a bio-bead release! An MSc report from 2021, initiated by Rother District Council, documents another event. Plenty in there about what Southern Water said it would do, which seems at odds with the latest pollution event! theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/n…

Great to see effective disabled access in Cantabria, Northern Spain, to one of the largest groves of coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirons) in Europe with over 800 trees on 2.5 hectares.

Now, here's something unusual, and very dangerous!

@ChrisAntoniou6 Brilliant, thanks for sharing.

I have tried hugging that same tree! 😉

@goindownslow No primroses were harmed in the making of this video!

oh,man! not on the primroses! 🫣

@joedamaggio I didn't like to say, as the sentiment is absolutely right!

@JeremyDBarrell Doh! Larch

Conifers generally retain their needles over winter, but there are several that are deciduous, so they lose their needles. Two that are easily confused are the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) and swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum). The former has opposite needles and buds, and the latter has an alternate structure. One also has pneumatophores, which are aerial root adaptations. Here is a comparison of what they look like next to each other.

Quite often structural problems with trees are signalled by thinning crowns compared to healthy trees, and very fine dead shoots around the outer extremes of the crown.

Another great ancient tree to see if you are ever in Cyprus. It is in the village of Ayia Mavri, reported to be about 800 years old, and an oriental plane (Platanus orientalis).

@Heavenmostwantd @EpicClipVault Exactly, for mallards in the UK at least, other females kill any strange ducklings. I know because we have a pond full of ducks, and it is harrowing to say the least!

@EpicClipVault Those are her ducks dummy🤦‍♀️

Mama duck adopts orphaned ducklings without hesitation 🥺❤️

The illegal felling of the Whitewebbs Oak #whitewebbsoak youtu.be/GQtpYWWAleo?si… via @YouTube For those of you who want to know more about this, Russell Miller provides an excellent analysis, so it is well worth watching. It is on a par with the National Trust felling the Duke of Wellington Cedar in 2014, at Kingston Lacy in Dorset. That made me feel physically sick, and this is much the same.

@gunsnrosesgirl3 This is really bad practice, which is what happens when natural resources are squandered. There is at least 2 cubic metres of great timber below that cut, but hey why bother, there are plenty more where that came from. Well, there were, but not any more.

Felling this enormous tree 📹 richard_moore101

@stonkcat Yes, at Moyles Court, about 1 k from Linwood.

@JeremyDBarrell I’m trying to place this. Immediately clocked it was the New Forest. Near Bank? Or Linwood?

Successfully protecting ancient trees can be a challenging management problem where they grow close to people.

@Georgeos61 Its in a village called Lania about 25 k north of Limsol, but it is tough to find, so up lots of little tracks, and surrounded by fields!

@JeremyDBarrell I never knew. My late mother is from Cyprus. Whereabouts in Cyprus is this magnificent tree.? Would love to look it up if and when I get to go.

Another magnificent oak in Cyprus thought to be about 800 years old, defying the odds and still growing well.

@dlennard In most cases, it is best to leave it up to the tree to use its natural defences, but you can often assist by making the growing conditions as good as possible, e.g., mulching beneath the crown, and keeping competing vegetation under control.

@JeremyDBarrell Loved this, Jeremy. Can the wounds be treated at all?

@norman_cal5445 Its a good point, but often managers are left with a legacy from the past, and pruning delivers tree benefits now rather than waiting for maybe 30 years until a new tree reaches the same size.

@JeremyDBarrell That’s well done pollarding, but I don’t get the appeal 😆 Just plant a smaller tree

Regular crown reduction, or pollarding, is a great way to tailor existing trees to the space available in confined urban locations, and it doesn't always result in weak unions, as is often stated.