For the Love of Scotland's Oak Trees

Words and photo by Breeze

Oaks have provided people with materials for so much over many, many centuries.

Ships, houses, carts and wheels, furniture, fuel for stoves and warmth, to name just a few.

Yet apparently most people in Scotland can’t identify an oak tree.

This is a tragedy.

As well as providing for us, oaks support the widest variety of insect and other life of any tree species in the UK.

They also help feed and house many of our favourite mammals and birds.

Tree diseases, pests, global warming, and invasive species like rhododendron ponticum and commercial conifers are threatening many of our native Scottish broadleaf trees, including oaks.

Acute Oak Decline (AOD) was detected in England in 2008 and is gradually spreading north towards Scotland.

AOD causes dieback in the crown of the tree and ‘bleeding’ in the trunk.

We need our precious native broadleaf trees now more than ever and it is time we all learned about them again so we can finally give something back to our trees, including reporting signs of disease, telling politicians to protect them, and helping stop them from being destroyed or illegally felled.

Sessile and Pedunculate are the two species of oak native to Scotland and wherever they grow they bring life and beauty.

The Clydeside walk at Levengrove Park is lovely, but it is elevated into something much more evocative by the dappled shade and embrace of the overhanging oak tree.

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