#577: Natural History Reading List #25: 'How to read a Tree'

Another really useful book by navigation expert Tristan Gooley.

I have a signed copy of his previous book: 'The Natural Explorer'

This book explores what a tree can tell us about the landscape. It says a great deal about the value of trees and how they interact with the soil, atmosphere, weather and biodiversity. They influence the drainage and fertility of the soil, and can also tell us a lot about where we are, and how the landscape is changing.

The loss of a tree can touch millions, as we saw with the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree.

It would make a useful book to add to the library for those who are considering work in local woodlands for fieldwork. We are still waiting to see to what extent woodlands are featured in the final specification.

My thinking would be that the final specification would involve students investigating a range of ecosystems and the value of a tree is something which students should certainly be asked to consider, perhaps when thinking about the wider 'value' of nature in our lives and landscapes.

Published by Hodder Press

Paperback, 320pp

ISBN: 978-1529339628

#555: Changing banknotes

I've mentioned some of the wildlife that features on coins and bank notes previously.

Many countries feature wildlife on bank notes as part of the nation's heritage and culture.

Now we may get more wildlife on our bank notes.

Following a consultation. 44,000 people had their say on what themes and images they'd like to see on their notes.

60% of people picked nature as their preferred theme, and so the Bank of England are making a big change.

This suggestion has not gone down well with the Daily Telegraph.

Here's the announcement from the Bank of England.

#545: Natural History Reading List #24: 'Shifting Sands'

The subtitle of the book is 'A Human History of the Sahara' and the author has personal experience of living in the region, whose name comes from some local terms.

It's one of the best books I read last year.

The indigenous populations would never use the term 'Sahara', as they refer to smaller sub-regions with which they are familiar. They will generally have quite specialist knowledge of particular areas and the routes between trading posts.

They used words that described the empty, dangerous, inhospitable nature of the region, some of which were then appropriated for the actual place names for desert areas

There is also plenty of insight. Jay Owens' book 'Dust' has previously explored the many geographical aspects that can be obtained from exploring the desert sands.

A large part of the desert is made of hamada or desert pavement, or stony ground, and sand dunes are relatively rare.

The Natural History of deserts will not be a main area of the GCSE Natural History, which will focus particularly on UK based ecosystems and nature, but the way that nature can survive and people can thrive in such challenging environments is worth exploring. 

The other aspect of the book is that the desert hasn't always been a desert - it used to be woodland, but climate change resulted in a change in the landscape of the whole region.

This book has been really fascinating and increased my knowledge of deserts a great deal. It is the additional human context which has made all the difference, and the way that it is put together is authentic and authoritative.

There is plenty on the desert as it is today, and its challenges.

My copy was published by Profile Books in 2025.

Hardback,  374pp

ISBN: 987-1-788166454

An audiobook preview is here. Those with Spotify Premium can listen to the book too.

This area is one where once again indigenous knowledge is coming to the fore.

#503: Local Distinctiveness

Common Ground has a "local distinctiveness" section to their website.

With the increasing homogenisation of the landscape and culture and the rise of AI slop, it's important to cherish those 'local' differences which can be explored using local fieldwork.

#453: The 'English' Oak

 

The Common or ‘English’ Oak (Quercus Robur) is the national tree of Germany. And obviously England

But also Poland, Romania, Belarus, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Serbia & Moldova pic.twitter.com/VcYFglCaz5

— The English Oak Project (@TheKentAcorn) May 26, 2025

#339: Romani gypsies and the landscape

Via Twitter - Historic England

Alternative views on our landscape and history.

Romani Gypsies arrived in the United Kingdom over 500 years ago, leaving an indelible mark on everything from art, music, and film to food, language, and politics. It could be assumed that with a culture historically centred around nomadism, tangible remains of this ethnicity are hard to spot. But the heritage of Romani Gypsies is all around us, seen in street names, old stopping places, at crossroads, cemeteries and meadows. 

In this short film, archaeologist and broadcaster John Henry Phillips explores the Suffolk countryside where he grew up to search for what remains and reflect on whether Romani Gypsy history has been forgotten or overlooked.

John Henry Phillips is an author, archaeologist, and filmmaker. He co-founded the non-profit Romani Community Archaeology, which excavates historic Romani sites alongside present-day Romani communities. John Henry is the author of The Search, presenter of Channel 4’s The Great British Dig, and created PBS’s No Roses On A Sailor’s Grave. 'Searching for Romani Gypsy Heritage' was created and composed by John Henry Phillips.

#243: Cave Paintings #3 - Cresswell Crags

As mentioned in previous blog posts, the possible specification that will emerge is likely to include some reference to early artworks which represent nature. The earliest of these that survive are rock carvings and cave paintings.

One proposed theme in the first iteration of the new specification is 'Life in the Early World'

This would include students exploring early representations of the natural world.

Cave paintings are the first examples of this.

The hand silhouettes in Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands) in Santa Cruz, Argentina, form part of an exceptional assemblage of cave art executed between 13,000 and 9,500 years ago. The site was granted @UNESCO World Heritage status in 1999 https://t.co/NEipFKHIRm ✋🖐🏾✋🏽🖐🏻✋🏿🤚🏼🤚✋🏽 pic.twitter.com/JpcEJlJvkA

— Prof Jamie Woodward (@Jamie_Woodward_) January 1, 2022

There are quite a few theories as to why people decided to decorate the walls of caves.

It's worth having a look at Jamie's book in the Very Short Introduction series: 'The Ice Age'.

Another related book here is 'Transcendence' by Gaia Vince, which explores the significance of this period in the development of language, which in turn led to storytelling. This will be appearing in the library / reading list posts as well.

In some associated posts, I have started to explore some of the possible places that students could be introduced to, which are perhaps a little closer to home. For those in the East Midlands there is a suggestion here:

In the UK, there is Cresswell Crags.

The website has plenty of information on the site.

#135: 21st October: Apple Day

Today is Apple Day, which was started by Common Ground in 1990.

I have blogged about Common Ground and their work previously.

The aspiration was to create a calendar custom, an autumn holiday. 

From the start, Apple Day was intended to be both a celebration and a demonstration of the variety we are in danger of losing, not simply in apples, but in the richness and diversity of landscape, ecology and culture too. 

It has also played a part in raising awareness in the provenance and traceability of food.

It would also make an interesting context for some work exploring the cultural dimension of food and how important this particular fruit is to people in the UK. There used to be far more diversity in the apples that were sold, but we now import fruit instead, despite the abundance of British varieties.

Of the 2,000 culinary and dessert apples, and hundreds more cider varieties, which have been grown in this country, only a few handfuls are widely known and used today.

Image source: Common Ground

This site shows the reasons behind the development of the day by the Common Ground founders.

In 1987, Sue Clifford and Angela King at Common Ground became aware of the sharp decline in traditional orchards in the British Isles since the 1950s whilst conducting research for the Trees, Woods and the Green Man project. They recognised that this decline not only had an ecological impact on the British landscape, but also signified a loss of associated cultural practices. Not only would we lose regional fruit varieties, local distinctiveness, and richness of wildlife, but knowledge of recipes, stories, songs, and skills such as planting, grafting and pruning would also diminish. To raise awareness of this issue, the charity launched its Save Our Orchards and Community Orchards campaigns, which sought to encourage and ‘a-peel’ to people to protect traditional orchards, as well as create new community orchards.

Realising it was ‘crunch’ time for orchards, in 1990, Common Ground introduced a new initiative to further protect and promote the ecological and cultural importance of orchards – a calendar custom which it named Apple Day.

Many UK farmers are grubbing up their orchards due to unprofitability, despite a growth of interest in ciders, particularly fruit-based ones.

From the article linked to above:

Orchards are now a very rare habitat in Britain, replaced by farms and urban development. England and Wales have lost 56% of their orchards since 1900. Traditional orchards have been hit particularly hard with a decline of 81%, equivalent to an area almost the size of the West Midlands.

As habitats they offer huge benefits for carbon sequestration and wildlife, particularly pollinators and birds.

I can see one project in schools which offer the GCSE Natural History to be the planting of at least one fruit tree by those students taking the course, which may not produce fruit in the time they are at school, but will by the time their children start school. This sort of longer term thinking is important.

This Reuters piece explains the economic decisions that farmers have for deciding to uproot orchards.

#121: Creativity required

I trawl through the mentions of GCSE Natural History on Twitter each month to see what people are saying and whether there is any news that is relevant. Back in June there was a mention of poetry, and I have now posted the first Natural History poem on the blog.

This tweet was from David Cooper, who writes about Place. Good to hear poetry being mentioned.

‘Poetry is hope in action’ (Clare Shaw): spent yesterday in & around @bristolmuseum discussing the new GCSE in Natural History & the need for young people to learn to love - a word that was used repeatedly & without apology - through culture & creativity as well as fact. pic.twitter.com/26yRJHkqBH

— David Cooper (@DrDavidCooper) June 18, 2023

I hope that teachers show a deal of creativity when it comes to creating their own school-specific resources.

Poetry is one way to achieve this.

Please share your favourite poems with a Natural History theme by commenting below.

#120: Natural History Poetry #1: 'To Autumn'

Alongside the other sources that students will be exposed to during the GCSE in Natural History courses, poetry will play a part. This variety of cultural sources including art and literature and music is one of the interesting aspects of the course, and the selection of these sources will be interesting, and will I am sure lead to some debate about inclusion and exclusion. 

It will certainly need to be diverse and not just created by old (and possibly dead) white men.

Having said that...

As we enter the season of autumn, here's a classic which is full of natural history references... and written by a dead white man: aged just 25 when he died of tuberculosis in Rome.

To Autumn (1820)

John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! 

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 

Conspiring with him how to load and bless 

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 

With a sweet kernel; 

to set budding more, 

And still more, later flowers for the bees, 

Until they think warm days will never cease, 

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. 

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 

Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, 

Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers; 

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 

Steady thy laden head across a brook; 

Or by a cider-press, with patient look, 

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? 

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too – 

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; 

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 

Among the river sallows, borne aloft 

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft 

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; 

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Image: Conkers and autumn leaves, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license