Anja Murray: We need to recognise the value of our native hazel woodlands
If It The You The Yellow Picture: Dna Will Bearing Release When Ripe, Male Grain Of Microscopic A Dust Pollen Tap Istock Tree’s Pollen Grains, Is A Catkin Each
We have the lowest cover of native woodlands in Europe, with the exception of Malta. Colonial clearances are often cited as the reason that Ireland was left with only 1% of woodland cover by 1900. But now, after a full century of independence, we still have only 11% of woodland cover. Only about 2% of this is native woodland, the remainder is dominated by plantations of North American Sitka spruce and other exotic conifer species.
By contrast, hazel woods tend to exist only in tiny forgotten pockets in inaccessible places where it is a matter of chance that they have survived.
My favourite hazel wood is just a few acres, thriving on the side of a steeply sloping hill, wedged between a river and a road. I imagine it only exists because it was in too awkward a location to clear. Some such pockets of hazel wood may be relics of the very ancient woodland, where complex relationships between plants, animals, insects and fungi have thousands of years of continuity.
Did you know that native hazel trees have thousands of tiny flowers blossoming now? Or that our Atlantic hazel woods are internationally exceptional?
We all know that hazel trees produce hazelnuts, but we often forget that a nut is a seed and a seed always comes from a flower. In the case of hazel, a beautiful native tree, the tiny flowers are lemon yellow and appear in long clusters called catkins, which dangle from the branches of hazel trees right now.
If you tap a catkin when the pollen is ripe, it will release a yellow dust of microscopic pollen grains, each grain bearing the tree’s male DNA. Hazel’s female flowers are vivid crimson red, but are so tiny as to be barely noticeable. Other native trees with flower-filled catkins are willow, alder, and birch.
In another few weeks’ time, little pockets of hazel woods all over the country will erupt with more familiar spring flowers: tall bluebells, delicate white-flowered wood anemones, gentle violets, and pastel yellow primroses. Flowers that are adapted to grow in woodland habitats have evolved to emerge before the leaf canopy of deciduous trees casts its dappled shade on the woodland floor.
I particularly love hazel woods for the scale of the trees, always so much smaller than oak or ash, as well as the cosy carpet of thick green mosses everywhere and chlorophyll filtered sunlight streaking through the dappled canopy.
Hazel is one of our commonest native trees, it was once so abundant that the Irish word for woodland (‘coill’ or ‘coille’) comes from the word for hazel (‘coll’). Hazel woodlands dominated much of Ireland, especially calcareous soils, for many thousands of years. Hazel now is regarded as scrub, although we have our very own category of Atlantic hazel woods here, which are very special places indeed. Because of the mild moist climate in the south and southwest of Ireland, some woodland types are of international significance.
Atlantic hazel woods are characterised by a thick carpet of rich green mosses and every branch is delicately patterned with lichens. Moisture-loving ferns grow from branches at every level, adding their symmetrical textures to the layers of life in the canopy. These Atlantic hazel woods are confined only to western Ireland and western Scotland, yet we have no specific action plan to protect this habitat type nor national strategy to allow for expansion in appropriate locations.
Hazel was hugely valuable in ancient Ireland because it is such a useful tree. It grows as multiple long straight stems, a characteristic that made hazel indispensable to people here since people first settled in Ireland. The rods are easy to harvest and manageable to build with. Hazel was the main construction material for thousands of years right across Ireland, not only for houses but also for trackways, for fences, for hurdles and fish traps.
When hazel is cut back, a practice sometimes known as coppicing, it regrows lots of new, long straight rods which can be harvested again and again, every eight years or so. This is the definition of sustainable.
In addition to the many practical uses, hazel woods are resilient ecosystems. For one, they are full of fungi, with networks of tiny mycorrhizal filaments running through the soil which can help the trees to cope with pests, drought, and diseases.
Broadleaf woodlands in upland settings are able to reduce flooding downstream when compared with sheep grazed pasture. Native woodlands store a great deal more carbon than short rotation forestry, especially as the majority of carbon is stored beneath the ground, so maintaining continuous cover is crucial. Half of our rivers, lakes in Ireland are failing to meet good water quality standards, and once again, native woodlands can be of enormous advantage in filtering and purifying water and helping to improve overall water quality standards in Ireland.
Broadleaved woodlands are the natural climax habitat of most of this island. If we are to thrive as a society, it is high time we take serious steps to recognize the value of our native trees and re-establish a whole lot more new native woodlands too. We need schemes such as the Native Woodland Scheme to be far more effective at supporting both the conservation of existing native woodlands and the establishment of new ones.
The forthcoming CAP implementation plan can do much to provide tempting agricultural subsidies to support farmers to integrate more woodlands into their farming business. Even in state-owned nature reserves and national parks, there is a great deal to be done to improve the plight of special Atlantic woodland habitats.
It is time to rethink our attitude to our native trees and prioritise a future for our wonderful, ancient species: rich Atlantic hazel woods.
- Anja Murray is an ecologist and broadcaster, she is a regular presenter on ‘Eco Eye’ on RTÉ 1 and writes the weekly ‘Nature File’ on RTÉ Lyric FM.