Survey of farmland trees August 2010

A survey of farmland trees in a sample km square in the south east part of Felsham parish was carried out on 22 August 2010. The area surveyed is shown in the Google satellite picture.

Result: 140 trees

On the 1st edition of the OS map [1895]for the same area the number of distinct trees shown =499 trees
(Note: this result is almost certainly an underestimate because the OS did not record every farmland tree - partly because the scale of the maps precluded the depiction of more than one specimen per 15m or so of hedge line, and partly because the instructions given to the surveyors meant that trees with girths of less than 60 cm [diameter around 20 cm] were omitted anyway.)

Comparing these two results implies that over the last 115 years we have lost between two-thirds and three-quarters of our farmland trees!

However, there are three big provisos:
1. How accurate was the OS map for 1895?
2. The situation today is complicated by the fact that many hedges around meadows are over-grown. This "overgrowth" cannot be measured accurately: much depends on how many trees would be allowed as "standards" if the hedges were coppiced.
3. Is the km square of Felsham parish representative of the whole area?

An additional complication is that some hedgerow trees, such as maple trees, are clearly overgrown hedge plants. The most obvious [and oldest?] trees are oak and ash.