Next week we are going to the House of Lords to meet Baroness Jenny Jones and other cross party MP’s. Most of the main tree organisations, such as the Woodlands Trust, the Tree Council, the International Tree Foundation, Treespect and the Conservation Foundation are coming with us, to add their voices to this campaign and Paul Powlesland our Barrister is proposing an amendment to existing law. This may be the first of several meetings. I am under no illusions as to how long things you think should have been in place ages ago, take in our modern world of instant gratification, while big business gets things done in a second. Laws to protect ancient yews should have been there all along and some of these organisations have been trying to do something about it for decades.

Meanwhile, slowly but surely, our living heritage of yews will be eroded, for one spurious reason or another, until the law is changed. As Rob Mc Bride (‘Tree Hunter’), Director of Treespect said to me this week, this is all linked with Climate Change and the incredulity of the young that their elders have allowed things to go unchecked to the point of extinction. We have failed the children, failed the future, failed to honour and respect all life on this Earth. We don’t have long to turn things round but if we are to set about the restoration of the Earth, then the trees are of paramount importance. Ancient yews, besides producing our oxygen, are our direct and living link to our ancient past going back thousands of years and to our once true values of custodianship and continuity for the future. In the end it all comes down to what we, as a society, hold dear, what we believe really matters and what we are willing to fight for.

Please sign and share the petition to save the oldest trees in the world or contact me if you’d like to come to the meeting on Wednesday. janisfry9@gmail.com

Photo here is of the 3,000 year old yew at Llanbedr Ystradyw (St Peters’ Church in the Valley of the Yew).