“My father’s 102 years’ old, so he was born in the same year as ITF,” said Dorothy. “He remembers the Lower Imenti when it was thick with old growth trees. I used to play in the forest as a child and hear the birds singing.” But in the past 50 years the forest had been steadily stripped of its trees. And the birds disappeared.

After reading one of 2024’s best new books about trees, ITF Trustee, Stephen Barber, shares the many tree themed books he’s enjoyed, from sixty years ago through to his current reading list.

Our trustee reviews Hedgelands: A wild wander around Britain’s greatest habitat, which waxes lyrical on the subject of British country hedgerows.

Did you ever stop to wonder how some of the old hedges acquired their fantastic shapes — thick, tangled horizontal boughs with vertical trunks, perhaps now fully grown trees?  

“With its free-standing veteran oaks in semi-grazed grassland, the landscape at Breite resembles an English medieval deer park such as Richmond, Windsor or Blenheim. But here they are all maidens, whereas in England most of the oaks are pollards.”

Discover the unique and magical trees of Yakushima, home to Japan's oldest cedar, the Jōmon Sugi. Learn about the history of logging that threatened the island's ecosystem, and how it was saved thanks to the legacy of English botanist EH Wilson.