Follow this link:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61980467

to ‘New map of ancient trees an opportunity for conservation’ and you will see there could be around two million trees of different species with exceptional environmental and cultural value previously unrecorded in England.

What with this and the Woodland Trust’s new campaign:-

‘Protect our Living Legends:  Stop the loss of old trees to development’, and we can see that most of our oldest trees, just like our ancient yews, the oldest trees of all, are not legally protected and that this has to change. It seems that the call to protect our living heritage is sounding loud and clear at long last! The Woodland’s Trust campaign calls for governments across the UK to step in and do something and so are we!! 

I urge you to sign my petition here for the Legal Protection of Ancient Yews if you haven’t already done so. It seems that the Church is not interested in legal protection for ancient yews, the oldest trees on Earth, of which they are the custodians who own most of them. Britain, and specifically Wales, has the largest collection of ancient yews on Earth and our UK government, as suggested by these new campaigns, should step in to override private vested interests and do something to conserve our heritage trees for the future before it’s too late, for we are on the cusp of the slide to losing the fight. What would Britain without its ancient yews be like? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

We are now at the point where churches are being sold off. A visit yesterday to a few church sites in South Wales with ancient yews of over 2,000 years, highlighted St. Catwg’s church Llanspiddyd and St Teilo’s church, Llanarth both under consideration of transferred ownership and St Cathen’s church Llangathen looking hardly used and as if it could be next. It is inevitable that other churches with ancient yews will be lined up for sale in the next few years, which puts the yews in uncertain jeopardy. We are now in a new era after the last 2,000 years when the Church looked after these trees. When a church is sold off privately and a congregation is no longer present to keep an eye on things, or when services are rarely held at various old churches, we have reached dangerous times for our ancient yews.

Janis Fry’s latest book - ‘The Cult of the Yew, Tree of Life, Mystery and Magic’ published by John Hunt next March, is available for pre-order on Amazon.