Trees beyond the wood conference proceedings

Abstract Veteranisation has in fact been around for centuries in the form of for example pollarding. It is now known as a technique whereby younger trees are "damaged" in a way which may speed up the process of production of the valuable habitats, found otherwise only on very old trees. The idea is to try and mimic nature using manual tools. The treatments should be relatively mild in character so that the tree survives, but adequate to create decaying wood habitat in living trees. In this way it may be possible to bridge any potential generation gaps which are commonplace in our modern landscape. Veteranisation is generally most suitable on sites, where there are plenty of younger trees, which would otherwise be removed for example to increase the level of light to favour other younger individuals or existing ancient trees. This means that you make use of the existing tree resource instead of removal. Veteranisation in the form described above is a technique that has been developing in different countries including Italy, USA and the UK over the last few decades. Rarely however, has the level of follow up been adequate to properly evaluate the techniques used. This paper will present an international project, initiated by the County Administrative Board of Kronoberg in partnership with Nordens Ark, which will attempt to carry out a number of relatively simple treatments on many oak sites in Sweden, Norway and England with the purpose of implementing a long term research project to establish which techniques provide the best results for nature conservation