If a community wishes to mark the millennium year with tree-planting, it should not be necessary to plant a forest or even a large group of trees. There is a case for one splendid tree in a free-standing position, a worthy and lasting mark on the landscape. Ideal for this, of course, is the quercus robur, the pedunculate oak which throws out its branches for 20 or 30 yards, branches which divert the eye by suddenly turning up at right angles, then maybe level out for a few yards and eventually turn down at right angles. An old oak of this kind needs space; it would be ideal to set it in a half-acre or so, bounded by a well-made stone wall and, of course, only grass all around.
The problem, of course is, that not many people will be happy to see their millennium contribution in the form of a young sapling. So it will be necessary, to give the community something to talk about and watch over, for the planting to be of a tree already of some size. It is possible to buy these from some dealers. It is also possible that someone in the area might have a pedunculate oak of, say, some 20 years, on his or her land and would be glad to donate it. There are firms which can handle the transplanting of such specimens. And, of course, one of the great figures in all this was Lancelot "Capability" Brown, who, among other distinctions devised a machine of some crudity but apparently also of some efficacy, for uprooting big trees and transplanting them to another part of his grand clients' estates.
It consisted of a long, strong pole mounted on two high wheels. It sounds daft, but he strapped the pole to the tree trunk, sometimes having lightened the top of the tree, then cutting the roots to the depth of the fibres, only a few feet from the trunk (he was taking some risk) all around. Then with a rope which had been bound to the top of the pole, several men pulled and pulled, and out of the ground came the roots or most of them, or many of them. Horses then drew away tree, pole and wheels.
How often did it fail? We don't know, but Capability Brown was a most successful man. A book, Capability Brown by Thomas Hinde (Hutchinson 1986), has a picture of a tree being carted away in this manner. And remember, if you do plant quercus robur there is a good chance that it will still be around for another Millennium.