Learning about Veteran Trees with Essex Wildlife Trust and Caring for God's Acre

Veteran Tree Course. Photo: Essex Wildlife Trust

Recently Essex WIldlife Trust Biological Records Centre received funding from Caring for God's Acre to run a number of adult education courses as part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Beautiful Burial Grounds project. The first of these courses covered the identification and surveying of veteran trees within the landscape.

The course covered how to identify a veteran tree and what features to look out for in describing veterans, as well as their importance on a landscape scale, and links to different habitats, from Churchyards to Parish boundaries. The classroom session was followed by a trip to view some veterans in the local area, and find out what information is needed to record these important trees and contribute to our dataset of veteran trees in Essex. The course was run by Macbradan Bones of Essex Wildlife Trust and was fully booked, with attendees giving very positive feedback on the day.

The next Beautiful Burial Ground funded course will be introducing two other common churchyard wildlife features; Bats and Swifts; later in June. For more information click here.