Roehampton Garden Society

The challenges to our trees

A rewilding project at Skiddaw will include 300,000 native trees

In the news this year has been the effect of climate change on our trees. Trees are slow to adapt – and although trees in our woodlands and forests are gradually spreading northwards as new seedlings grow, the pace is too slow and many of our native trees may not survive without help.


It’s good news that English oak trees may be more resilient to warmer climates than other species, but many other well-known species, such as the European beech, will struggle. Read more from New Scientist

Kew Gardens expects to lose 50% of it’s 11,000 trees to heat and drought before the end of the century and is already sourcing more tolerant tree varieties from Europe to fill the gaps. Read about Kew here

In our woodlands our native trees could die off equally suddenly. But should we be helping their migration? An interesting article in the Guardian explains the dilemma Read here

It’s a complicated argument – but one thing is clear, as we plant as many trees as possible in parks, gardens or rewilding ventures such as Skiddaw, the seedlings may need to come from further south if they are to survive. Seedlings from local areas need to populate projects northwards.

Comments are closed.