In 2014, the Arboretum volunteers teamed up with iTree and Treeconomics to carry out a survey of the valley’s trees.
Ten years on, with the support of Sidmouth Town Council, we repeated the survey during 2024. The data has now been analysed and the technical report is here.
We also have a more digestible report here.
Revisiting the same computer generated sample of 200 circular plots recorded in 2014, volunteers collected data on all the trees within circles, including which tree species were present and how big the trees were, girth and height. The sample data was then sent off to Treeconomics for analysis.
In 2014 we had just over 400,000 in the valley. In 2024 this had dropped to 358,000, mainly because some areas of commercial forestry have been harvested, but Ash Dieback disease is also taking its toll. However, the actual tree canopy cover has remained almost unchanged at 23% because young trees expand to fill gaps when given the chance.
Douglas fir remains the most numerous tree in the survey but Birch has overtaken Larch in second place. The age structure of the trees has improved, again because young trees are replacing the harvested timber trees.
Our trees make a huge contribution to the ecology and environment of the valley, see the reports for more.
Measuring the trees
A summary report on the 2014 survey can be seen if you click here.
