“We will lose one like this every year”

In 1790, a retired military man named Hayman Rooke stumbles upon a gigantic oak tree in Sherwood Forest and describes it as a “majestic ruin” that even then seemed to be nearly a thousand years old. The tree would end up taking its name and surviving more than two centuries after that discovery.

Today, his death leaves an uncomfortable question.

The fall of a giant. The Major Oakthe monumental Sherwood oak linked for centuries to the legend of robin hoodhas died after more than a thousand years of life. Its disappearance is not only the end of one of the oldest and most emblematic trees in Europe and the entire world, it is also the most visible image of how some of the great modern evils have begun to claim even that which seemed eternal.

This year it did not produce a single leaf. The giant that survived wars, kings, empires and revolutions could not overcome a chain of increasingly dry and scorching summers.

The great invisible enemy. The experts point out several accumulated factors, but there is one that stands out as the great “cancer” that has accelerated its fall: the global warming. Over recent years, extreme heatwaves and prolonged drought have put the tree under constant stress, especially following the historic summer of 2022, when the UK surpassed for the first time 40 degrees.

Ancient oaks are designed to withstand centuries, but not to adapt so quickly to a climate that changes at an unprecedented speed. The lack of rain in the last five years and record temperatures have been, according to its caretakers, a decisive factor in its collapse.

When saving can also harm. The History of the Major Oak It is also the story of how human intervention, even well-intentioned, can alter natural processes that had been in operation for centuries. Over time, metal chains, supports, concrete fills, and lead and fiber coatings were installed to keep it standing.

The problem is that the ancient oaks they age “inwardly”: They drop branches, reduce size and concentrate resources. Forcing it to maintain its giant frame caused it to continue sending water to branches it should have already sacrificed. The result was a kind of internal exhaustion that ended up strangling his own vital system.

A collapsed root system. The underground analyzes revealed a devastating panorama: impoverished roots, suffocated and practically disconnected from their environment. Decades of mass tourism (about 350,000 visitors a year) compacted the soil until make you less fertile and less alive, while ancient changes in the water table due to mining aggravated the situation.

During the last three winters tried to aerate and regenerate the soil to restore microbial life, and the first results were encouraging. But it was too late. The tree barely sprouted last year and this year it just didn’t wake up.

The symbol of a silent extinction. The most disturbing thing is not that the most famous tree in the world has died, that too, but what it represents. According to the Woodland Trust“we will lose a tree like this every year. They do not have any specific legal protection and we are losing them because they are not given the value they deserve”, a phrase that completely changes the dimension of the problem.

This is neither an exception nor an isolated relic: the monumental trees andthey are disappearing silent due to neglect, urban development, tourism, disease and, to top it all off, extreme weather. They are the “white rhinos” of British forests, almost unrepeatable organisms that take centuries to form and can disappear in just a decade.

The death that continues to give life. Be that as it may, and although the Major Oak is deadwill still stand. And that matters. Its dead wood continues to be a fundamental ecosystem for insects, fungi, birds and hundreds of species that depend on this type of habitat at some point in their life cycle.

In fact, a quarter of all forest species need dead wood to survive. Even without leaves, it remains one of the largest trees in Europe and retains irreplaceable biological value. In a way, his final lesson is precisely that: even in death, he still sustains life, although the warning is clear. If a thousand year colossus has fallen, many others may already be following the same path.

Image | Nilfanion, Marcin Floryan

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