Many people helped us to undertake the research and photography both for this new edition and the first edition (in the late 1990s) of Ancient Trees, and we are greatly indebted to them all.
For their assistance with this new edition we would particularly like to thank Tony Kirkham (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Ted Green (Ancient Tree Forum), Professor Donald Piggott, Fred Hageneder (Ancient Yew Group), and Jeroen Philippona (Monumentaltrees.com).
We would also like to thank the personnel of the Ancient Tree Forum, including Jill Butler, Neville Fay, Brian Muelaner, Caroline Davis, John Smith, David Clayden and William Cathcart, who are working hard to protect our ancient tree heritage both here in the UK and across the world.
Assistance from the Ancient Yew Group was also very much appreciated, and we would like to thank Tim Hills in particular.
Edward Parker would like to thank all those who collaborated or worked with him on the Ancient Tree Hunt (2009–2011) at The Woodland Trust, including Katherine Owen, David Alderman, Nikki Williams, Louise Hackett, James Storey, Alison Evershed, Jill Butler, Jon Parsons, Fiona Moss, Chris Hickman, Ann Rooney, Mark Brown, Tanya Burton, Michelle Davis, Sharon Wennekers, Rhiannon Bates and the many other staff at the Woodland Trust who supported and encouraged the work on ancient trees. He would also like to thank Rob McBride, Steve Waters, Tony Burgoyne, Howard Leader, Vanessa Champion and all the other ATH volunteer verifiers whose hard work and time spent finding, recording and verifying the UK’s ancient trees was a constant inspiration.
Anna Lewington would particularly like to thank John Short for his advice and invaluable help with the Index to this new edition.
For the first edition of Ancient Trees, we are particularly indebted to Francis Sullivan and Alison Lucas, formerly of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) UK, who not only provided funding for the initial research trips to Australia and New Zealand, but had faith in the project from the start.
Many other people assisted or were consulted during the research and writing of the original book, including the following members, or former members, of staff at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Dr Aljos Farjon, Dr Pat Griggs, Dr Stuart Henchie, Tony Kirkham, Dr Geoffrey Kite, Barbara Lowry, Anne Marshall, Laura Ponsonby, Helen Sanderson and Dr Jeffrey Wood. Members or former members of WWF in different parts of the world also assisted, including Sandra Charity, Dr Chris Elliott, Dr Alan Hamilton, Dr Steve Howard, Dr Lei Guangchun, Peter Newborn and Michael Rae.
Expert advice and statistical information was also kindly provided for the first edition by David Alderman (Director), Pamela Stevenson (Secretary & Treasurer) and John White, (Technical Adviser) of the Tree Register of the British Isles.
Other organizations that gave assistance include: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; World Pheasant Association; Goethe Institute; German National Tourist Office; Comite Nacional pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora (Codeff), Chile.
Individuals we thank again (listed with the posts they held at the time) include: Ian Aldred (Cheshire County Council); Mark Atterton (World Conservation Monitoring Centre); Brian Ayres (Archaeology and Environment Department, Norfolk County Council); Laura Battlebury (World Conservation Monitoring Centre); Dr Jeffrey Chambers (University of California, Santa Barbara); Patrick Curry (Friends of the Ankerwyke Yew); Dr Martin Gardner (Edinburgh Botanic Garden); John Gittens (Cheshire Landscape Trust); Anna Hallett (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney); Dr Sawsan Khuri (University of Reading); Dr Antonio Lara (Universidad Austral, Chile); Herr Hannich (Schenklengsfeld Town Council); Niro Higuchi (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, Manaus); Garth Nikles (Queensland Forest Research Institute); Nick Lawrence (Dorchester Reference Library); Jeroen Pater (‘Monumental Trees’ project); Libby Simon (Conservation Foundation); Dr Tim Synott (Forest Stewardship Council, Oaxaca); Rachel Thackray (Thackray Forrester Communications); Sonia Williams (Crawley Library).
Thanks are also due to the following individuals: Anand Chetan, John Gilchrist, Jack Weber, Richard Dodge, Reynaldo and Alfredo Melihir, Reynaldo Mariqueo,Stephen King, Richard Head, Ray Oddi, Wilma Rittershausen, Lucinda Lachlin. The work of Canadian botanist Al Carder was also a great inspiration.
We are very grateful to friends and family for their support and encouragement while we updated the original book, and in particular: Peter, Edwina, Richard, Charles and Emma Parker, Sherry Tolputt, Jay Griffiths, Hannah Scrase, Scott Poynton, Kath Owen, Bryan and Cherry Alexander, Sarah Oldridge and Archie Miles.
Finally, we must thank Tina Persaud, and our patient editor Nicola Newman, both of Anova Books, as well as Gina Fullerlove of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who made this new edition of Ancient Trees a reality.
While acknowledging the help that so many individuals and organizations have given us, we must also point out that any mistakes or errors remain entirely our own.