Joining the mission to save Britain's rarest tree

Cuttings of the nation's rarest native tree have been brought to Wiltshire as part of an effort to save them from extinction.

Black poplars once covered swathes of Britain's ancient flood plains, but now there are believed to be fewer than 7,000 of them left.

In an effort to bring the species back to his area, Swindon Borough councillor Jake Chandler propagated dozens of cuttings taken from a tree in Dorset and is now planting them in the St Andrews area of the town.

"These are trees that have been in the British Isles long before humans," said Chandler.

"It's incredibly important to protect them for insect species, birds, mammals, etcetera," he added.

"It's also a huge cultural loss, I think, to undergo the loss of a tree that we're so connected to through history."

Chandler said he was drawn to the "tree lovers' tree" after finding out there were none believed to be living in north Swindon and was "jumping for joy" after successfully propagating some of his cuttings into saplings.

"We need more of these trees," he said.

"We need to promote more local, native woodland, and the more we can do to protect that the better - not just for woodland species, but for everything else as well."

While the exact location of the trees has not been revealed to stop them being targeted by vandals, Chandler hopes to plant them across his St Andrews parish.

Conservationist Alex Atkinson explained that the trees once thrived in the wetlands of medieval Britain, but as land had been cleared for farming and rivers straightened to prevent flooding their habitat had "disappeared".

"The black poplar is another bit of this missing landscape we've got in the UK," he added.

"It fits in as another piece of the puzzle to a whole realm of conservation activities which is reconnecting rivers to their flood plain and recreating these lost landscapes."

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