TALLEST FIR TREE IN ENGLAND FOUND IN LAKES
TALLEST FIR TREE IN ENGLAND FOUND IN LAKES
Posted: February 23, 2012
National Trust Rangers have discovered the tallest tree of its kind in England is growing in the Lake District.
The 57.8 metre Grand Fir is higher than Nelson’s Column in London, and has been confirmed as the tallest tree in Cumbria and the tallest Grand Fir in England by officials from the Tree Register; The body which keeps a record of the UK’s notable and ancient specimens.
It was planted in around 1860 at Skelghyll Woods at Ambleside.
National Trust Lead Ranger John Pring had called in specialist arboriculturists to help him measure the tree’s dizzy heights – and also decided to capture the experience on video, with the help of Dreamtime Film, an award-winning Cumbrian film company.
John said: “A survey 20 years ago suggested that some of these trees were going to get really big. We decided to get them resurveyed this year and Toby Fisher, a local forestry consultant, kept coming back with the same figure for this tree. We knew it was something special and decided to get it more accurately measured.
“It really is a rather splendid specimen so it was great news when it was confirmed as the tallest tree of its kind in the country, as well as the tallest of all the trees in Cumbria.”
Mark Sigrist and Mick Lupton of Aspen Tree Management scaled the tree, then used a long badminton pole to reach the top of the tree’s highest branches where they weren’t able to climb. They also placed a camera at the top for some time-lapse photography and to record the amazing views across Windermere and beyond.
John said: “I’ve worked with Mark and Mick on numerous occasions and they are used to me asking them for weird and wonderful things! Not so long ago I sent them to the top of some lime trees armed with a freezer bag and a pair of scissors to snip the top shoots, known as ‘sun leaves’, for a research project. They’re more used to carrying chain saws up trees than little pairs of scissors!”
You can see the film footage of the measuring of Skelghyll’s Grand Fir here: http://web.dreamtimefilm.co.uk/projects/great-fir-skeghyll/
