Overview
- The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds announced Thursday that the Major Oak failed to produce leaves this spring and is now presumed dead after monitored decline in recent years.
- Soil tests and underground surveys found the tree’s root zone badly compacted by centuries of heavy visitor footfall, with areas described as as hard as concrete and a root system that was starved and disconnected from surrounding soil.
- Experts say well-intentioned interventions over the 20th century — timber props, metal chains, hollow fills of concrete and surface coverings — altered the tree’s natural ageing and likely worsened its decline.
- The oak will be left standing as a natural monument and habitat while acorns and cuttings already grown into saplings have been planted around the world to preserve its genetic line.
- Conservationists, including the Woodland Trust, say the Major Oak’s loss highlights the need for improved legal protection and new management of veteran trees to guard against visitor damage and climate-driven drought.