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> I guess in the US I would expect wealthy to find some interest, donate some money, start ( funding ) planting Oak trees and get this moving. Commercial oak t

> I guess in the US I would expect wealthy to find some interest, donate some money, start ( funding ) planting Oak trees and get this moving. Commercial oak trees take decades for furniture grade wood and most are harvested after 50-80 years. The ones this project needs are at least 150-200 years old, which are very expensive in the UK. Anyone who plants them today is doing so for their great-great-great-great-… grandkids. France has tons of them in forests specifically started centuries ago for the French navy but this project is insisting on UK wood for… reasons.

zeristor 2y ago
Actually they did. About 200 years ago they realised that the UK needed trees to build warships of the future, and so a number of were planted to supply the navy. It’s just that things moved on in the meantime, and metal replaced wood. But you can see it in the countryside there being 300 year old oaks in hedgerows, but no 100, or 50 year old oaks coming up to replace them, admittedly that’s what I’ve observed around here. An item about the Royal Navy’s voracious appetite for wood: https://legionmagazine.com/the-royal-navys-war-on-trees/ https://legionmagazine.com/the-royal-navys-war-on-trees/
- rob74 2y ago
  Not only the Royal Navy! Before they started planting trees for future shipbuilding, the French also stripped their countryside of trees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Ventoux#Flora_and_fauna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Ventoux#Flora_and_fauna). And Iceland also used to be forested before the Vikings came along (https://www.geographyrealm.com/icelands-long-road-to-reforestation/ https://www.geographyrealm.com/icelands-long-road-to-refores...)
rob74 2y ago
Well, yeah, I mean, archaeologists should be accustomed to long term thinking, right? So better plant some trees now, and then their successors can complete the project in 200 years...

zeristor 2y ago

Actually they did. About 200 years ago they realised that the UK needed trees to build warships of the future, and so a number of were planted to supply the navy. It’s just that things moved on in the meantime, and metal replaced wood. But you can see it in the countryside there being 300 year old oaks in hedgerows, but no 100, or 50 year old oaks coming up to replace them, admittedly that’s what I’ve observed around here. An item about the Royal Navy’s voracious appetite for wood: https://legionmagazine.com/the-royal-navys-war-on-trees/ https://legionmagazine.com/the-royal-navys-war-on-trees/

rob74 2y ago
Not only the Royal Navy! Before they started planting trees for future shipbuilding, the French also stripped their countryside of trees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Ventoux#Flora_and_fauna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Ventoux#Flora_and_fauna). And Iceland also used to be forested before the Vikings came along (https://www.geographyrealm.com/icelands-long-road-to-reforestation/ https://www.geographyrealm.com/icelands-long-road-to-refores...)

rob74 2y ago

Well, yeah, I mean, archaeologists should be accustomed to long term thinking, right? So better plant some trees now, and then their successors can complete the project in 200 years...