Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Predicted wind loss outcomes due to climate change (see column 4 in above article) have now come to pass.

Over winter 21/22 the loss of live Douglas Fir branches has been significant.

This has not been experienced in this woodland over the past 20+ years.

DF growth results for 2022 are in. What a surprise !
This was the hottest UK summer ever including drought but yet has been the best growing season to date

DF growth in 2023 demonstrates that growth has dropped back from the 2022 high but does not demonstrate an unexpected deviation from the general upward trend in annual growth rates for 64 year old trees.

Merv Wilkinson (BC Canada) said "felling DF trees under the age of 75 years is madness".

By early August 2024 the highest annual growth rates experienced to date had been achieved most likely due to a mild climate with heavy spring and early summer rain.

The last 6 weeks of the 2024 DF tree growing season saw an extraordinary amount of rainfall that resulted in significant end of year growth.

Climate change appears to be having a significant effect on tree growth.

Lord Kelvin requires that we express our 25 years tree growth research project findings in numbers and so in simple arithmetic terms :-

4 cu ft annual volumetric increment (per 65 year old trees) x £10 per cu ft = £40 per tree x 400 trees = £16,000+ per annum x 10 years = £160,000. It appears likely that Merv Wilkinson was quite correct in advising not to cut Douglas Fir trees under 75 years of age.