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Natural play area

t Brownsea Island Tree trail Look out for the tree signs and follow the map to discover the

trees we have chosen for you to climb or balance on. Have fun and take care.

Please be aware that you take part in this activity at your own risk .

A great tree to start, a beautiful oak. Look at the craggy bark as you climb. Little ones may need a leg up at the beginning. Do you know the name of the oak tree’s nut?

1 Another oak, tricky to begin with but then you should get the hang of it. Oak trees support more life than any other native tree and so are incredibly important for wildlife.

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A different tree this time. Notice the smooth grey bark and green shoots of this sycamore tree. It should be a reasonably easy climb.

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Over 10,000 seeds can be dispersed from one sycamore tree. See if you can find any of its winged seeds on the ground.

Oak trees provide food and shelter for hundreds of different species of insects, many birds and mammals such

as deer and dormice.

4 An easy oak tree, enjoy yourself. Red squirrels can’t eat the nuts of the oak tree as they contains too much tannin and so are difficult to digest.

5 This is a Holm oak or evergreen oak. The branches are close together so you have to weave in and out of them. The Holm oak is native to the Mediterranean and was first brought to the UK in the 1500s.

6 This is a fallen Monterey pine. Explore the many different branches, watch out because some are a bit spiky. Whilst you climb, enjoy the breath-taking views across to the Purbeck Hills. Can you find one of its huge pine cones?

Red squirrels eat pine cones for most of the year but in the autumn they feast on berries, fungi and nuts from beech, sweet chestnut and hazel trees.

It is thought that the oldest tree in Britain is in a Welsh graveyard. It is a Yew tree and is estimated to be more than

5000 years old.

7 Our last oak, it has many branches to climb. The oldest tree on Brownsea is an oak. It is thought to be about 327 years old and sits in the grounds of Brownsea castle.

8 This one is a Scots pine, its cone is a staple food for the red squirrel. Be a squirrel and see how high you can go to get your cones. Find a Scots pine cone and see the difference in size to the Monterey’s.

9 Welcome to the natural play area. Here you can enjoy playing with trees in a whole different way. Come back and tell us about your adventures.

To keep the population of red squirrels healthy, it is really important that we provide them with good trees that bear plenty of fruit. The trees you see in the natural play area have been felled in order to allow younger, more fruitful trees to grow for the squirrels.