When the tree at Sycamore Gap was felled there was a huge outcry. Investigations and art work. Trying to understand why and how. Anger and shock, sadness and disgust.
Then people collected seeds from the tree and have been growing them. There were 49 saplings which have been grown from seeds of the felled tree that organisations could bid for. One tree for each foot in height that the tree was at the time it was felled. Over 500 applications received.
What remains of the tree has been protected and there are signs that the tree is regrowing. I saw it a couple of weeks ago myself when I walked the Hadrian’s Wall Path from coast to coast – Bowness to Wallsend. Along the way places I stayed often had pictures up of the Sycamore Gap tree showing one of the recognisable sights of the walk. When we got there it was being guarded and filmed by people in hi-vis with clipboards.
Should the shoots be left to regrow, which will lead to a more messy outline than what was there before? Or should it be properly felled and a new one put in place that will have the same look as the previous one? If the former, is it the same tree or not and does it matter?
What is it we are trying to do with all of this? Are we trying to protect the tree and help it recover, or are we trying to recapture the way it looked before? Making a wrong right or just trying to make sense of something that, even after the trial, seems mystifying?
The scale of interest in one tree feels high. It’s a recognisable tree given it’s location. Caught on film lots of times. Voted best tree. Boundary between countries and a marker along the way for those walking Hadrian’s Wall
The fact it’s just one tree, one recognisable tree, seems to be at a scale that people can engage with. Unlike the much larger scale environmental issues of climate change and biodiversity loss, the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree feels manageable. It was there and now it isn’t. There isn’t a faceless organisation who did it, or some weather event. Instead it’s two people. Manageable. Trying to understand their motivations. Wondering about the relationship and dynamics. National outcry. Shock and rage. Front page news and long reads about the tree and the trial – the comedy defences put forward, grainy footage of the moment the tree came down filmed by people claiming not to have done it.
The Global Forest Watch estimated that between 2001 to 2024, the UK lost 585 kha of tree cover. That’s equivalent to a 16% decrease in tree cover since 2000. Much more than one tree lost and yet hardly any coverage or action…
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