Last updated 16:04, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

IN a wave of nostalgia for the peace and love summers of the 1960s, this is apparently going to be a Summer of Hugs, in Cumbria, according to the Woodland Trust.

The Summer of Hugs is part of the Woodland Trust’s ancient tree hunt which has a five year plan is to find and record 100,000 ancient, veteran and notable trees in the UK. After its first year it has gathered over 20,000 records, but this summer holiday the Trust hopes to get everyone hugging to add even more ancient trees to its records.

Ancient tree hunting does not need special equipment and it is something that everyone, of every age and level of fitness, can do. Hugging is an easy way to measure the girth of old trees because a fat girth is one of several indicators of age. The Trust is looking out for the future of the UK’s remarkable ancient trees.

There are estimated to be more ancient trees in the UK than anywhere else in Northern Europe, yet there’s no official record of where they are, how many there are and, unlike most historic buildings, few have any protection.

The tree hunt has already identified some of the best ancient tree hunting grounds in Cumbria where there are still more clusters waiting to be discovered.

Ancient tree clusters have been identified in the hills above High Dalebanks to the south-west of Crosby Ravensworth at OS Land Ranger grid reference NY60501363. There’s another cluster around Morland south-east of Penrith at NY595225 and in the National Trust’s Troutbeck Park, just off the A592 at NY41880584.

Town and city centre parks and gardens, country roads, lanes and field margin hedgerows are also good places to look.

Log on to the interactive map on www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/discoveries/clusters and zoom into the 'city' level of your area.

So how do you hug an ancient tree? A ‘British Standard Hug’ from an adult, with arms outstretched and fingertip-to-fingertip, is about 1.5 metres, and a child’s hug is roughly half that. A veteran oak might be a candidate for the Ancient Tree Hunt database once it gets to a minimum of three adult hugs, a beech might qualify at just two hugs, and a fat, old sweet chestnut needs to be four hugs as they grow more quickly.

But smaller trees can also be very old. Look out for ‘the signs of aging’, which include holes, dead and rotting wood, wrinkles and crannies. These are all important habitats for hundreds of plants, animals, insects and fungi, including many rare and threatened species. Clusters of ancient trees are even more important, because they offer more places for wildlife.

There are thought to be ancient oaks still thriving that were alive even before the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066. Books and documents recording this momentous historic event haven’t survived as well as the oaks originating from the same date. Incredibly, these trees are still waiting to be found, hugged and mapped, and anyone could find one.

To register a tree on the Ancient Tree Hunt website, make a note of where it was found, take a photo if possible, and measure its girth. You can use a tape measure, or use the hug method – but first read the Ancient Tree Hunt’s guide to measuring old trees on the website www.AncientTreeHunt.org.uk. All submissions are checked by the Ancient Tree Hunt’s Cumbria volunteer verifier.