Ted Green In The Spotlight
By Mark Chester
2018-10-16
In the spotlight with Ted Green.
Ted Green has become a widely respected and household name in the world of arboriculture, sharing his passion for ancient trees and ecology. At home in the wilds of the Windsor Great Park, and full of opinion, he has gained a fan base among ‘the arbs’. Later this year, Ted will host the CAS at Windsor event, which will be part of the 2018 AGM. Ahead of that event, I met up with Ted to explore the park and its treasures, and to find out a bit more about the man and what makes him tick.
I first met Ted back in 1998 when he was one of the speakers at the annual Tree Wardens conference in Leicester. I immediately connected with this passionate and charismatic man who engaged with his audience, and threw in thoughts and opinions, some relating to trees, others to life in general. He has a healthy disregard for convention. I recall him leading a group at a National Trust property in Derbyshire, and stopping by an oak that was at least five hundred years old. Why, he asked, are people walking past this giant of half a millennium in order to visit a pile of bricks build two hundred years ago?
Earlier this year, as I put the finishing touches to the biography I have been writing on Peter Wells, Ted’s name was mentioned. The two had been working together on a range of projects, including one seeking to develop a genetic database of the great oaks. A chat with Ted, anecdotes flowing, and the idea developed of visiting Windsor Great Park for a CAS event. Ted invited me over for a personal tour and a chat, so I could get to know him more.
Ted is a Windsor man through and through. He moved to the area the mid 1930s to a cottage on the edge of the park, as a young child and has lived in its vicinity ever since. His father, one of six, was orphaned and with his three brothers, went in to military service as children, whilst his two sisters went in to a convent. Ted didn’t actually meet his father’s siblings until 2010, when he was 76! Ted was just three years old when his father last visited home. He served in the military, being stationed in Hong Kong.. Sergeant Edward ‘ Dodger’ Green was taken prisoner by the Japanese when they invaded Hong Kong. This was not good news for Sergeant; the Japanese soldier does not believe in surrender. The Japanese culturally held prisoners in deep contempt.
Sergeant Green was one of 1800 prisoners hurded on to The Lisbon Marue. Conditions on board were horrendous with men dying on the racks which made for beds. There was no fresh air in the stifling heat, the electricity having been switched off. There were 800 men crowded, in darkness, in the hold where he was based. The ship, flying the Japanese flag, was torpedoed by the US navy. As it sank, the Japanese commanders refused to allow any of the prisoners on board to leave.
As the ship sank, with waters rising, Sergeant Green kept the spirits of the 800 men in his company, regaling them with stories and humour. This is a gift many see in Ted. Sadly, 800 men died as the ship sank, with Sergeant Green being one of them.
Ted never heard from his father during the war, receiving two letters from the Ministry of Defence and one from the British Red Cross. The third letter, six months after victory was secured over Japan, informed his mother that her father was ‘Missing, Presumed Dead’. On hearing this devastating news, Ted sought solace among the trees of Windsor, a place that would provide a refuge over the years and decades.
Whilst his mother received a war widow’s pension, this was modest and without her husband’s salary, money was tight. Ted found himself exploring the vast treasure trove on his doorstep. His childhood was affected by several contagious diseases during which he was unable to attend school. He wasn’t bedridden, so spent his time in the Parkland. He reflects that the stress of not knowing what was happening to his father left him particularly vulnerable to these infections. He would often leave home at dawn and return when it was too dark to play.
Life changed for Ted with the end of World War ll and the introduction of the ‘eleven plus’. His local grammar school, which had been fee paying, now offered free places for boys from poor and deprived backgrounds. Ted passed and was soon received a good education. It was, he reflects, a world class experience. The masters were passionate about education, recognising its potential to take people out of poverty. Ted especially bonded with his arts master, who became a father figure to him.
Ted loved art and was soon prolific making drawings. One day, his master gave him a lesson in life. Taking a piece of work Ted was proud of, he drew some circles across it. Seeing Ted’s crestfallen face, the master commented, ‘I can tell you it is a good piece, and you won’t improve, or I can show you how to improve’. This was wisdom Ted never forgot.
Although gifted to studying at an advance level, Ted left school at 16, the need to earn a living being the greater priority. An early memory was of weeding a garden for a local resident, Miss Kay. Other boys had fathers who bought them bikes. Ted had to work to earn his. On a warm summer’s day, he was weeding groundsel from her garden, so that it would be tidy. He watched some nearby Linnetts feeding on the groundsel. He asked if he could leave some for the birds. This request was denied, Miss Kay wished to have a tidy garden. His preference for nature over tidiness was thus strengthened.
Leaving school, he was offered a position as a technician to researchers at the Zoology Department at Imperial College, Ascot. He was continuing his education, and being paid for this. National service intervened, with time in the Royal Air Force, including on aerial surveying. When it concluded, he spent a couple of years labouring, which enabled him to make some money. However, he was soon back at Imperial College. Aged 55, with restructuring at the college, he took the option of moving to pastures new, and a role at the Nature Conservancy Council. He stayed there until he reached 60 and had to retire. His days with the civil service were at an end. However, his managers recognised his expertise. He was offered a new, more flexible role as Conservation Consultant to the Crown Estate via the Nature Conservancy Council, operating to ensure continuity between the Government body and the estate. He has thrived in this role, providing strategic oversight.
Ted was soon undertaking survey work, his focus being trees, fungi and insects. His skills and knowledge were evident, even though he had no post sixteen academic qualifications. One task was to survey Windsor Great Park and locate the oaks so that those managing the site had a greater understanding of the biodiversity. Another task he volunteered to work on was to explore how the population of Sparrow Hawks was progressing, part of a national project. Ted spent his time collecting infertile eggs which were then tested for pesticide analysis, especially DDT.
Normally, when I interview people for In the Spotlight, I conclude the time by asking what current and future projects they are involved with. For Ted, it is time to explore the conveyor belt of ideas which flow, and which he inspires. He is keen to attribute contributions from others. An idea to run seminars for arborists exploring fungi and hollow trees, ‘Thinking Arbs’, has been developed alongside Reg Harris, someone Ted clearly has great respect for. Lynne Boddy has been in free flow undertaking research with her entourage of students. Beech has been ‘infected’ with fungi to see how it responds.
There has been haloing of trees, the construction of bug habitats including for stag beetles, and the trialling of standing dead timber. Ted installed a trunk to a living tree, using two braces. He then filled it with leaves and Beech sawdust. Needing some protein, he added a dead cat he found on the main road. Ted is not a feline fan! Seven years later, the feature was assessed. Violet Click beetles, which are really rare, had made it their home, and a new species of fungus was found on what was described as ‘a mummified cat’. This caused excitement among the ecologists.
The installation of standing wood is not complicated, if you know what you are doing. Otherwise….
Ted showed me some examples where it wasn’t done quite as well, with varied results. The key is to brace the standing timber to the trunk of the supporting tree. As the supporting tree grows, the brace cuts in to the dead wood, but this is still held firmly in place. One attempt by others saw the dead wood being attached to a branch above. It was beginning to sway as the supporting branch moved.
Buglife is guiding other projects. With one, logs 60cm wide have been laid in a row, with a 60cm gap and another row of logs 60cm alongside. The gap has been filled with twigs and leaves. The aim is to recreate the conditions of a fallen tree.
We visited the organic nursery he has established in the midst of the forest, and the remains of the William the Conqueror oak, a tree which has been dead for some time. There are the remains of propping installed by a previous generation, but the tree has been dead for as long as Ted has known it. The nursery is of specific importance to Ted. As a child, he remembered foresters planting young trees of Scots Pine in a clearing by mature Scots. They didn’t know why, but for some reason, a couple of years in this place would equip these young trees to thrive.
Ted is passionate about mychorizae, and he now understands why they help these trees to thrive. The mychhorizae from the mature trees support the root development of the younger trees, giving them a head start. The new nursery is growing oak trees for the Park. He then showed me two Beech growing in part of ‘his patch’. One had grown in modern compost, the other he found in the forest. The latter was thriving, the former looked stunted. I am not sure whether this would constitute a formal trial, but it is evidence to support his thesis.
Ted has been working closely with Peter Wells, founder of Barcham Trees and a specialist in producing young trees. Peter has been growing saplings from some of the great oaks in Europe, and exploring some ideas. As Ted shared them with me, I recognised we may have the material for a research thesis or two….
There was time to see experimental hollow trees and his own attempt to kill Laurel, which was successful. We could easily have continued. However, the calls on his time were evident. There was a chat with a member of the Windsor team here, a briefing with an arborist there, a pause for reflection, an anecdote shared. Already this year, there have been visits to Canada, New Zealand, France, Spain, Poland and Romania. Twice to France already, the third pending. And a lecture at the AA conference in Exeter. In Romania, he has been working with Trees Romania, a new group, in the restoration of Ancient Wood Pastures.
And time has been spent on some memoirs.
Next year is going to be quieter, with his partner retiring and some holidays planned. Both Ted and his partner love trees. With a passion. One senses that whilst the pace may steady, Ted will remain active in the years to come. And those around him will take on the baton of developing some of his many ideas. Ted has one of the great arboricultural and mycological resources on his door step. He has spent more than 80 years exploring it, an adventure that is keeping him active.
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