The Sycamore Gap felling could help rescue British woodland

BBC News

5 days ago

James Canton spent two years sitting beneath an 800-year-old oak tree near his home in Essex, watching acorns fatten and butterflies land on the massive knurled grey trunk. Sometimes he sat in the branches too.Canton, a lecturer at the University of Essex, recalls how it helped him feel a "sense of connection". "We're happier sat in an oak tree ten foot from the ground, watching blue tits feeding on caterpillars – involved and immersed in that natural world." He went on to write a book called The Oak Papers about that time spent studying the Honywood Oak.For years, it was easy to forget that we used to be a woodland nation: around 6,000 years ago untouched swathes of oak, hazel, birch and pine blanketed an estimated 75% of the UK. But in recent months the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree next to Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland has put our relationship with trees, and the natural world more widely, back under the spotlight.Two men are due to be sentenced today for the crime that has been called a "mindless destruction". Canton calls it a "symbolic" moment. The felling of the Sycamore Gap has prompted calls for stricter legal protections for trees, not only to help prevent similar crimes in future but also to help the public appreciate the value of trees at a time when many of our woodlands are in poor health and targets for tree-planting are not being met.
But even if the government were to back calls for greater legal protections, other questions remain - namely, which trees should be afforded greater legal protection? And arguably even more pressingly: should Britain be thinking more broadly about how to save our depleting woodlands - and is legal protection enough or is a fundamental rethink required?
UK's 'odd relationship' with trees
The Sycamore Gap wasn't a particularly ancient tree, nor a native species, but its position gave it a totemic status. Tucked into a fold of the hills in an area of outstanding beauty, the tree was famous around the world. People went there to have picnics, propose marriage, scatter ashes and to seek solace during lockdown.Experts at Northumbria University say the single tree's "dramatic and photogenic setting made it a culturally significant landmark", and it was often used as a symbol of the surrounding Northumberland region. Local people spoke of their sense of devastation at its loss, while Northumberland National Park Authority received thousands of emails, letters and messages.
And yet despite being a nation of tree lovers, we live in one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth - while we still aren't planting enough trees, despite calls by successive governments. The UK has 13% woodland cover, compared to an average of 38% in Europe, according to Prof Mary Gagen of the University of Swansea.We've been planting more woodland in recent decades, with woodland creation rates much higher now than they were in the 2010s, yet even they remain off track, according to statistics from Forest Research. The target set by the previous Conservative government was to plant 30,000 hectares a year by 2025 across the UK, in line with the heyday of tree planting in the 1970s.Statistics show that 20,700 hectares of new woodland was created in the UK between April 2023 and March 2024, a big achievement. However, this fell to 15,700 hectares over the year to March 2025, largely as a result of a drop-off in planting in Scotland. Rates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland went up – though from a low base.
And the woodlands that already exist aren't in great shape. Only 7% of it is in good ecological health, says Prof Gagen.She is among those who think that this all nods to an "odd relationship" with trees – one of "simultaneously adoring and denuding woodlands".Andrew Allen of the Woodland Trust warns there could be a knock-on effect: "While money goes into getting new trees in the ground, we continue to spend very little on looking after the trees we already have - and this risks serious consequences."
'Why would a tree older than Stonehenge go unprotected?''
Ancient trees provide a home to hundreds of different bird, insect and mammal species, yet they have no automatic right of protection. This is unlike some other countries, including Italy and Poland, where so-called "heritage" trees have specific legal protections.Some UK trees are protected through being in a nature reserve or a site of special scientific interest, while Tree Preservation Orders can be made by a local planning authority to protect specific trees or woodland from deliberate damage or destruction.
Yet many fall through the gaps. Only a fifth of our "oldest and most important veteran trees" are in protected areas, says Prof Gagen. Veteran trees are trees that through their own decay act as a habitat for other species, promoting biodiversity.The Tree Council charity has written a report calling for greater protections for the country's "most important trees", such as at the Sycamore Gap. The outpouring of emotion and anger after the felling of the tree shows how valued these "socially, culturally and environmentally important trees are", says Jess Allan, science and research projects manager at the charity.On the back of a Heritage Trees Bill, introduced in December 2023 as a private members bill in the House of Lords, the charity is calling for legislation to create a statutory list of the most valuable trees and to impose stricter penalties for damaging them, mirroring the system for listed buildings.Crucially, this could protect trees that are much-loved and culturally important because of their place in the landscape, as well as protecting ancient trees that are vital in preserving nature.
Jon Stokes, the charity's director of trees, science and research, points out that in Portugal, the maximum fine for destroying a notable tree is €500,000 (£433,000).He says protecting our "most celebrated trees" is a no-brainer. "There are yew trees in this country that are older than Stonehenge – nobody would ever contemplate not protecting Stonehenge so why would a living thing that's older than Stonehenge not receive some protection?"He hopes something positive could come out of the felling of the Sycamore Gap: it's made people realise that some of the UK's trees are "truly vital to our culture and heritage and history – and our biodiversity - we should be looking after them better than we are at the moment".The Tree Council's report is currently being assessed by the government, but there is no date on when any decision will be released.
'You can't stop reckless acts'
There are some who believe legal reforms are not enough. Even the proposed new measures might not have saved the famous sycamore: its felling involved trespass onto land owned by the Northumberland National Park. And a Tree Preservation Order wouldn't have made a difference either, says Sarah Dodd of Tree Law in Barry, Wales, a law firm that specialises in legal issues involving trees."Ultimately, you can put all the protection you want on trees, but some people are just going to break the law, you can't stop some people doing some reckless acts," she says.
The bigger question, she says, is how we get people to appreciate the value of trees and therefore not want to fell them. She hopes that giving trees special legal status will raise their profile, and therefore make people recognise their importance.Mr Stokes, of the Tree Council, says if we are to maximise the biodiversity value of our trees we've got to celebrate and protect the old ones. And we need to build up new trees next to our older ones, so that wildlife can flow "from these ancient bastions into the new woods and hedges and individual trees that we're planting", he says.A recent report by the Woodland Trust found that the current health of our woods and trees is "concerning", and proposed solutions include more woodland creation, better woodland management, agroforestry (combining agriculture and trees), ancient woodland restoration, and natural flood management, whereby trees are planted to slow down water flow.
Difficult choices ahead
This will not be easy and Prof Gagen of Swansea University says saving the UK's woodlands is a complex problem that demands difficult choices around building."Unfortunately, for most people if asked if they'd like more new, cheaper housing or faster transport, or to protect nature, they are going to sacrifice a woodland," she says.She says there is a need to ensure people are aware of the "true value of nature"."A single big tree in the right place is providing thousands of pounds worth of carbon store, flood protection, free air conditioning, habitat, wellbeing provision, pollution control and a hundred other benefits, and no one is asked to pay those costs if the tree is felled for development. That needs to change to save UK woodlands."
As for Canton, he stills visits the Honywood Oak near his home, and is involved in projects to turn around the fortunes of the "forgotten forests", areas of ancient woodland that were historically turned into timber plantations and now need to be restored.He hopes that years from now we will have learned from the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree and others like it, and changed our attitude."I'd really like to think that in a generation's time, there will be rights for trees – trees that are over say 100 years old that you cannot do this, and you get much worse punishments than currently exist," he says."Hopefully in time we will gradually get there – our society is naturally catching up with our natural emotional connection with the natural world."Top image credit: Joe Daniel Price via Getty
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