1,200-year-old Robin Hood oak tree in Sherwood Forest has died, group says

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A monolithic past oak histrion linked to the fable of Robin Hood whitethorn person been loved to death.

The 1,200-year-old Major Oak successful Sherwood Forest is believed to person died aft it didn't sprout leaves this spring, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said Thursday.

Visitors implicit the past 2 centuries who viewed the tree's gnarled limbs and sprawling canopy successful Nottingham compressed the soil, making it hard for rainfall to scope its roots, the conservation radical said, contempt the contiguous country astir the monolithic oak being fenced off.

The wood has been nether menace for years and the histrion had been rumored to person died successful the past — lone to person the radical corroborate it was inactive alive.

That is nary longer the case.

"The tree's nonaccomplishment to nutrient leaves this twelvemonth is heartbreaking for everyone," Hollie Drake of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said successful a statement announcing the death.

The histrion is said to person sheltered Robin Hood, the legendary 13th-century bandit who stole from the affluent and gave to the mediocre and took refuge successful the wood erstwhile being pursued by the sheriff of Nottingham.

It got its sanction aft being mentioned successful a publication connected oak trees by Major Hayman Rooke successful 1790 that led to the archetypal question of fans who flocked to the forest.

It's intolerable to accidental what killed the tree, but the footprints of millions contributed to its downfall, on with involution to enactment up its monolithic limbs utilizing cables and poles. Climate alteration that has brought vigor waves and drought was besides blamed.

Tree experts recovered the basal strategy strangled and starved.

"Ancient trees similar the Major Oak are the 'conservation achromatic rhinos of the U.K.' but their diminution is acold little visible," said Ed Pyne, of the Woodland Trust. "Saving them is captious to the wellness of the satellite we unrecorded successful and yet astir vanish quietly, without the designation oregon attraction fixed to the Major Oak."

In summation to its spot successful folklore, the wood is known for Sherwood oaks that floated the ships of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson's Royal Navy successful the precocious 18th and aboriginal 19th centuries, and arsenic timbers successful the extortion of St. Paul's Cathedral successful London.

The Major Oak was spared from the saw and had been protected by a obstruction since the 1970s.

"Although this marks the extremity of the Major Oak arsenic a surviving tree, it does not people the extremity of its story," the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said.

"The histrion and ungraded beneath it volition proceed to beryllium a captious refuge for wildlife and the cognition we person gained by looking aft the Major Oak volition assistance sphere different past oaks crossed the country," the radical said. "Its bequest volition unrecorded connected done its saplings and the legends associated with it, with plans being drawn up with our partners, and the histrion volition proceed to beryllium a captious refuge for wildlife."

Drake said the histrion volition beryllium a monument that radical tin visit, "living connected successful the fable of Robin Hood and continuing to supply arsenic overmuch enactment to the forest's ecosystem successful decease arsenic successful life."

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