Ted Green

Ted Green is a rebel. And the ancient tree expert’s new book includes a photo of him sticking up two fingers at a portrait of Margaret Thatcher. But the influential, iconoclastic Green, 89, who has lived his whole life around Windsor Great Park and still works as a conservation adviser for the crown estate, is also a staunch advocate for King Charles’s protection of Britain’s unique trove of ancient trees. …Green has spent his life challenging authority and scientific orthodoxies. …For 34 years, Green helped a wide range of scientists before Thatcher’s university cuts led to his redundancy. Then he became an adviser to the crown estate at Windsor, where he remains today, renowned for connecting sometimes warring ecologists, arborists and conservationists. …If he could have one wish, it would be “for our trees to command the same respect and recognition that we give our historic buildings”, he says. “Trees are living heritage.”