Once upon a time, about five thousand years ago, Britain, apart from the North of Scotland, was covered in Trees. Oaks, Elms, Ash, Willow and Evergreen’s like Pine made the island a forest from Lands End to Inverness. Mesolithic Britons had a ready source of material for fuel and for buildings. They began one of the largest deforestation programs the world has ever seen. As Southampton Timber Merchants Timbco will tell you, we are still feeling the effects of this. Only twelve percent of Britain is now wooded compared to Finland which has seventy two percent.
We have been able to recover some of it since the end of the Second World War. A replanting programme set up to replace this loss has been going on since the 1950’s. The chosen tree for this was the Spanish Plane, mainly because it does well in urban areas. Tree preservation orders were introduced to stop the felling of rare and special trees and the Dutch Elm Disease situation did nothing to help.
Modern reasons for tree loss can be attributed to the Napoleonic Wars where Oak was required for ships, in fact many new Forests were created as the authorities worried about a shortfall in wood for the navy. The First and Second World war saw a huge depletion as well.
Hardwoods, softwoods and what trees give us
Forests do far more than supply timber. Trees provide habitats, take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and research has shown they can communicate through underground networks of fungi. They have also been used in medicine for centuries.
People have built with wood for just as long, from the ships that set out to explore the world to the timber-framed buildings of the Tudor period. Wood is divided into hardwoods and softwoods, though the names do not describe how hard the timber is. Hardwoods generally come from deciduous trees grown from a seed or nut, such as oak. Softwoods come from coniferous, cone-bearing evergreens with needles, such as pine.
Holly is an exception. It is evergreen but has leaves rather than needles, so it counts as a hardwood. It is also one of the whitest woods, prized in furniture and decorative work, a reminder that timber is chosen for appearance as well as strength.