‘Most famous tree in the world’: Sherwood Forest’s 1,000-year-old Major oak dies | Trees and forests

The Great Oak, one of Europe’s oldest, largest and most famous ancient trees, has died.

The massive tree, which has grown for at least 1,000 years in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, failed to produce any leaves this year after being stressed by a series of hot, dry summers.

Thousands of visitors admire the oak tree every year; with its age, a massive 11-metre girth and a 28-metre shadow that inspired a folklore forest. In Robin Hood’s day, the oak tree, although not hollow, was said to have provided shelter for outlaws and their gang fleeing from the tyrannical Sheriff of Nottingham.

When snow fell on the tree in the winter of 2010, an eerily clear image of Reverend Tuck was drawn on the tree trunk. In other winters, when it snowed everywhere, there was no snow visible on the branches of the tree.

But it was probably recent summers and human adoration that hastened the natural end of the tree’s long life.

Like other ancient oaks, the tree has been repeatedly stressed by the heat and drought brought on by global warming, most notably the heatwave of July 2022, when the UK baked under record 40C temperatures.

After the RSPB, which manages the Sherwood Forest site of special scientific interest (SSSI), announced the tree’s passing, Robin Hood arrived at the tree in an electric van for an impromptu, informal funeral.

Outdoor educator Robert Brackley, who has shown thousands of schoolchildren the wonders of the Major oak tree while wearing authentic outlaw furs equipped with functional bows and arrows, said: “The stories it gives us are a legacy. It is the most famous tree in the world. The legend lives on forever. I’m sorry, but it’s a temporary moment in time. We must remember what it was like and admire it today.”

Visitors from Spain, Sheffield, the USA, South Korea and Australia stopped by the tree to pay their respects. “This is huge!” said Carter Jackson, eight, from Sheffield. “It’s a really beautiful tree and it’s a shame it died.”

His father Ryan Jackson added: “It’s a dying piece of history but it was 1000 years old, you can’t live forever.”

“Poor tree,” said Kirsty Champion from Adelaide. “I always watched Robin Hood on TV and read the books. It’s very sad that we tried to help him and protect him, but it probably made it worse.”

There is England A unique wealth of very large and old oaks: 114 living ancient oak trees with a circumference of more than nine metres, described by conservationists as the “white rhinos of the UK”; Only 98 have been found in the rest of Europe, including Scotland and Wales.

Since the oak was named in honor of local historian Major Hayman Rooke, who described the tree in 1790, it now attracts 350,000 admirers each year. Although a protective barrier was placed around the tree in the 1970s, the oak had been weakened by poor soil health and soil compaction from visitors, as well as Sherwood’s wartime role as a military camp.

Well-intentioned historical interventions did not help its longevity. In 1904, supports and metal chains were installed to support its branches. In the 1960s, the hollow parts of the tree were filled with concrete to support it, while the limbs were lined with lead, then fiberglass, and even coated with fire-resistant paint.

Experts believe that the supports that continue to support the tree’s strong branches also put it under pressure. When left alone, old oaks shed their limbs and “grow down,” retreating into their trunks so they need less water and nutrients as they age.

Since the RSPB took over management of the site in 2018 and launched studies and urgent action to address the tree’s deteriorating health, it was discovered that the oak’s powerful trunk was running out of water as it was pumped into the outer branches, artificially supported by supports.

RSPB Sherwood Forest land operations manager Chloe Ryder said the supports “probably affected its ability to support itself”, but they could not be removed because the tree would collapse. He said he was “devastated” by the death of a tree he had visited as a child.

“It’s heartbreaking. I’m truly heartbroken by what has happened in my lifetime, let alone my tenure. I was almost afraid to come see it and get that approval, and I can’t see any leaves on it. I still think it’s one of the most beautiful trees. We call it a living museum because it has so much to teach us, both good and bad.”

According to Ryder, underground testing revealed “a smothered and starving root system that was completely disconnected from its surrounding environment” in nutrient-poor soil devoid of microbial life. Over the past three winters the RSPB has slowly dug around the roots of the tree to aerate it, nourish it and restore its health and vitality. Although tests showed life returning to the soil, the great oak tree grew almost no leaves last year and no buds or leaves this year.

Reg HarrisAn arborist who has been monitoring the tree’s health on behalf of the RSPB for the past nine years said it was impossible to isolate a single cause for the tree’s decline. “The factors affecting it over such a long period are wide and varied, including 200 years of tourist influx and vehicle jamming, changes to the water table due to coal mining beneath it, and significant changes in climate, particularly in the last 10% of its life.

“Unfortunately, the lack of summer precipitation and unprecedented high temperatures in the last five years appear to have contributed significantly to this.”

Although the tree is leafless and lifeless, it will be allowed to remain standing, especially since its “dead wood” is nearly as valuable to other wildlife as a living tree.

“It still has irreplaceable habitat value. It’s still one of the largest trees in Europe and it still does so much for the ecosystem,” said Ed Pyne, senior conservation advisor at the Woodland Trust. A quarter of all forest species depend on dead trees at some point in their life cycle.

While everything was being done to save the great oak, Pye said other ancient trees had died or been destroyed without anyone noticing and called on the government to impose special protection. “We lose a tree like this every year. They have no set legal protection and we lose them because they are not valued properly.”