P-05-911 Protect Wales’ Ancient Yew Trees, Correspondence – Petitioner to Committee 28.05.20

Dear Petitioners Committee,

I can assure you that English Heritage has indeed made the Ankerwycke Yew a Scheduled Monument. I can understand the Deputy Minister believing that just Ankerwycke Priory is one because it was deemed too sensitive for the public to discover that there were 2 scheduled monuments at the site one being the Yew tree and the other the Priory as the National Trust were not ready security wise and so it is not easy to find but it is most certainly in place and the National Trust before the virus were beginning to have boat trips run for tourists to visit the tree.

The rest of my petition representation still stands and I have nothing to add except to reiterate that Wales has the largest collection of ancient yews on earth. Yews are the oldest living trees. Don't you think the nation should protect and flag up this amazing asset? If you are not in the know with the tree world you will not know that this is Wales' true importance internationally. People come from all over the world to see these ancient trees and if you  go to Defynnog near Brecon you can see just how many people come from right across the world from the visitors book! The Defynnog Yew is probably the oldest tree in Europe (in excess of 5.000 years) yet it has no legal protection. Most modern countries would give it that protection.

Best wishes,

Janis Fry