>An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California.
I did a bit of digging around on the web and as far as I can tell they think there are more giant redwoods growing in the UK than in the whole of the US.
This is an interesting read, but I find the number cited – 500,000 – to be absolutely unbelievable. Literally unbelievable. Where on earth has that come from?
The same article talks about how the trees rarely reproduce naturally in the UK due to a lack of specific conditions. So whence come this 500,000? Hand-planted? It strikes me as implausible even over the course of 150 years. Christ it’d be nice if more would reliably plant 500k today, with the spectre of deforestation and climate change over our heads.
Also, where are these half a million trees? 500,000 is a sizeable forest. So either there is some estate or even public land with a giant redwood forest (perhaps several of them?), or they are more broadly dispersed – in which case who has counted them? And who planted them?
There’s a guardian article from 2017 (which I almost wrote as ‘7 years ago’ before throwing up in my mouth a bit) that describes ‘hundreds’ across various stately homes. Evidently that is not a proper count, but surely the ‘fact’ that there are half a million of the blighters across the UK would have found it’s way into an article at the time.
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Edit: for reference there are estimated to be about 120 million oak trees in the UK.
Yeah I was surprised when I learned that redwoods are only naturally found in part of of California given how many of them I had encountered in the UK as a kid.
National survey actually counts every individual single tree and they are marked on ordinance survey maps. Forests are not. But taken in average per sq acre
Where’s the best place I can go in the UK to see a forest of redwoods?
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>An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California.
I did a bit of digging around on the web and as far as I can tell they think there are more giant redwoods growing in the UK than in the whole of the US.
This is an interesting read, but I find the number cited – 500,000 – to be absolutely unbelievable. Literally unbelievable. Where on earth has that come from?
The same article talks about how the trees rarely reproduce naturally in the UK due to a lack of specific conditions. So whence come this 500,000? Hand-planted? It strikes me as implausible even over the course of 150 years. Christ it’d be nice if more would reliably plant 500k today, with the spectre of deforestation and climate change over our heads.
Also, where are these half a million trees? 500,000 is a sizeable forest. So either there is some estate or even public land with a giant redwood forest (perhaps several of them?), or they are more broadly dispersed – in which case who has counted them? And who planted them?
There’s a guardian article from 2017 (which I almost wrote as ‘7 years ago’ before throwing up in my mouth a bit) that describes ‘hundreds’ across various stately homes. Evidently that is not a proper count, but surely the ‘fact’ that there are half a million of the blighters across the UK would have found it’s way into an article at the time.
​
Edit: for reference there are estimated to be about 120 million oak trees in the UK.
Yeah I was surprised when I learned that redwoods are only naturally found in part of of California given how many of them I had encountered in the UK as a kid.
National survey actually counts every individual single tree and they are marked on ordinance survey maps. Forests are not. But taken in average per sq acre
Where’s the best place I can go in the UK to see a forest of redwoods?