England’s ancient oak trees are dying in the summer’s extreme heat and dry weather, according to the Woodland Trust, with trees and ecosystems unable to adapt fast enough to the changing climate. The heatwaves across much of Europe this summer have had a notable impact on crop growth and plant health. To cope with the extreme conditions, many trees are undergoing “early autumn”, wilting and losing their leaves early.
John Parker, the chief executive of the Arboricultural Association, said: “The signs of heat stress and dry weather is visible.” Ed Pyne, a senior conservation adviser at the Woodland Trust, said it was helpful to think of trees like a large pipe constantly transporting water, minerals and nutrients from the soil, through its roots, up its trunk and out to its branches and leaves. While the impact of the extreme weather is widespread across different species, Pyne said England’s ancient and veteran trees were being disproportionately affected. Oak trees are classed as chronologically ancient from 400 years old onwards, although many will have ancient characteristics from around 300 years.
There are about 3,300 oak trees greater than 6 metres in circumference in England, and about 114 over 9 metres. The rest of Europe combined, including Scotland and Wales, has about 98 recorded oaks over 9 metres. Sherwood Forest lost eight ancient oak trees in 2024 and 2025, and Pyne has identified seven in England and Wales that are now in a critical condition: He said: “When you get these incessant droughts year after year, it’s a cumulative effect which compounds across time and gets worse.
Almost all of our ancient trees are struggling under these conditions. They’re dying of this drought stress.” Pyne’s analysis of mortality rates of ancient oaks found that half could be lost over the next 60 years. This analysis did not consider the changing climate, so Pyne believes the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate.
It is not just oak trees that are affected. Parker said beech trees in particular were also struggling with the heat. Alexander Held, a senior expert at the European Forest Institute, said in Europe even drought-tolerant trees such as pine trees were dying.
The impact is varied, with some trees affected by the heat and others sunburnt from the sunlight. Angelo Morgan, a director of urban tree management at the company Trees UK of Bromley, said historically their busy period had been the winter, when high winds and rain could cause a whole root system to come up. But now they were receiving an increasing number of calls to deal with “limb failure” in periods of hot and dry weather.
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