Fire in the woods

I expect many of you, like me, enjoyed making fires in your youth.  Well I still enjoy it now.  There's something very elemental about fire. 

But when fires are lit under trees it can be very injurious to them.  The damage is unseen at first, but after a month or so the bark begins to show scorch marks.

A closer look shows that the bark has actually been killed.  and beneath the bark, the vital, unseen growth layer called the cambium is also dead.   

 This usually leads to bare wood and fungal attack, after which the tree becomes liable to breakage. 

Not only that.  Fires cause further unseen damage to the feeding roots just below the soil surface.

For this reason we are thinking about creating a fireplace at the viewpoint or on the foundation of the old cowshed, to encourage those who want to have fires to do so away from the trees.