Spending time in out and about this summer? Then Rupert Bear® needs you to go and find a tree to hug!

Rupert’s leading the hunt for old, fat trees throughout the UK in association with The Woodland Trust, and we’re relying on you and your children to help us find and log them. Old, fat trees are likely to be ancient, and we think Britain might have the largest number of ancient trees in Europe: it’s your job to help us prove it!

Get hugging!

Talk to your children about trees around you and what they know about them. Have they got trees in their garden, or do they see one on the way to nursery? How big is the tree? Bigger than them, their mum or dad? Could they fit their arms around it? How old would they guess it is?

One way to tell the age of a tree is to see how fat it is, so get a few friends together, pack a tape measure, string, camera and a picnic and set off on an expedition to find a fat tree. When you find one that makes the kids stop and say ‘wow, that’s a fat tree!’ you’re probably there! Get them to stand fingertip to fingertip around the tree, until their hands meet up like a daisy-chain. Once they’ve managed to stretch around the trunk in a big hug, ask the children to keep holding hands but to unravel themselves and stand in a line. This is how wide the tree is, so make a note of the ‘hug’ number, and take a photo of the tree with the children standing in a line in front of it. Then measure the tree with your tape measure or some string and either note the measurement or cut the string appropriately.

Just as a rule of thumb, here’s what the hug-size of a few common trees would be, if they were ancient:

1. Oak: 3 adult hugs
2. Beech: 2 adult hugs
3. Scots Pine: 2 adult hugs
4. Rowan: 1 adult hug
5. Birch: 1 hug
6. Ash: 2 adult hugs

Don’t forget to log your old, fat tree online at
www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/rupertbear : it’s easy to register, and you’ll find more about trees, further details of the hunt, competitions and games. There’s a special pack for nurseries, too.

This initiative also aims to teach children about their natural environment & encourage families to use their local knowledge (and keen nature detectives!) to log ancient trees on a central Woodlands Trust online register.

Hugged a tree. Now what?

Don’t stop there! Throughout the summer, we’ll be posting fun, woodland activities on this site, so keep checking back for fun things to do when you’re out and about. We’ll even have a few, great ideas for rainy days…