The Restoring Hardknott Forest team checked them after the earlier drought, and most of the trees were fine. There was some drought shock, but a lot of them have been re-growing from from the roots in previous years and there’s reason to believe these few that were struggling will do the same. Most of them were fine, but with the bracken so high in summer checks will need to be done in early Spring.
Phil went for a wander around fighting through bracken and can confirm. It was impossible to find anything in this huge valley, and getting around it was even harder, so with two long wet feet Phil wandered off to come back and search another day.
The team actually popped back a few weeks later and said: There were around 5 dead cell-grown aspen that had been planted in the grass, which evidently dried out more than the bracken area. These were the only dead trees we saw. Others that had been drought stressed and dropped their leaves still had live stems, and a number had sprouted new growth from the base.”
