[College of ACES] [University of Illinois] [Illinois CES]

Re: Re: ulmus glabra camperdown- pollard

Ellison@cheshirewoodland.demon.co.uk
Sat, 2 May 1998 16:46:45 -0500

May I draw your attention to the fact that pollarding pre-dates publication of 'A New Tree Biology'. Pollarding has been practised in Europe for in excess of one thousand years and almost certainly did not originate from the pruning of saplings or even young trees.

The term 'Pollard' originates from the de-horning of livestock 'Polling' or 'Pollarding. Trees were pollarded to produce crops of wood and animal fodder in a system that kept the crop out of reach of browsing animals. Pollarding was nothing more or less than coppicing on top of a stem.

There are oak pollards in Windsor Great Park, England that are in excess of 500 years old, supporting some of the rarest saproxylic species in Europe.

Pollarded and Pleached avenues have been a designed feature of the English landscape since the early 1700's.

It is too easy to criticise the artistic endeavours of an individual from a distance, Perhaps we should leave our pulpits once in a while and look at the tree as something other than a shrine and read something other than the 'Bible'.

Mike Ellison