The Conservatives did badly in municipal elections earlier this month. Many local councillors blamed national politics for the drubbing. But in Plymouth, where the Tories lost almost every seat, the results also reflected more parochial concerns. When 110 trees in the city centre were felled under the cover of darkness in March, to make way for a £12.7m ($15.8m) redevelopment, public fury quickly toppled the presiding Tory council leader. Anger was still bubbling at the polling stations. “They’ve been drawing trees on the ballot papers,” a Tory councillor there told the BBC. “Which makes a change from phallic symbols.”

Tree-felling is at the centre of disputes beyond Plymouth. Campaigners in St Albans are protesting against plans to chop down 250 street trees. Some 17,000 people have signed a petition against a £160m busway between Cambridge and Cambourne, a nearby town, because it would slice through a 100-year-old orchard.

In March over 50 lime trees—which had been subject to Tree Protection Orders (TPOs), a legal power that helps safeguard important community trees—were approved for felling to make way for a dual carriageway as part of the £1bn Stanton Cross development in Northamptonshire. The felling was paused after two weeks of protests that saw four people arrested; the developer, Vistry Group, has stopped work while it talks to local stakeholders. between 2020-21 the Woodland Trust, a charity, saw a 173% rise in requests for help with threats to street trees and woodland.

Protesters say that trees lack proper protection. The first locals may hear of a felling is the sound of chainsaws. Unlike in countries such as Italy, where ancient trees are akin to listed buildings, in Britain most of the oldest trees are not legally protected. TPOs are awarded by local planning authorities, which can remove them at whim. “The archetype is of the fox guarding the henhouse, where the councillor wanting to chop down trees is the person supposed to be protecting the trees,” says Paul Powlesland, a campaigner and barrister at Lawyers for Nature, a pressure group.

Nor can all trees be replaced like for like: mature trees are significantly better for carbon sequestration, carbon storage and biodiversity. Newly planted trees can fail to take: of 860,000 saplings planted for “net biodiversity gain” during a £1.5bn upgrade of the A14 motorway between Cambridge and Huntingdon in 2020, three-quarters have reportedly since died.

Few people like the idea of chopping down trees. But the problem with arbor-activism is that Britain already struggles to get things built. Some of the trees that have been the focus of anger are not that special: those in Plymouth were planted in the 1980s on what was a road-encircled lawn. And some projects are badly needed. The Cambridge busway, for example, would connect new housing developments and reduce car trips to the city, which would otherwise rise by 70% by 2031.

“There’s a collision between what the public wants and what political parties think they need: more housing, more roads, more infrastructure, more growth,” says Baroness Barbara Young, chair of the Woodland Trust. Consultation can help. A proposal to run National Grid power lines through Hintlesham Woods in Suffolk was amended after talks with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, the Woodland Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. More consistent rules on TPOs, to say nothing of more tree officers, might shore up public confidence in the planning system. Tree-lovers and developers are not natural friends. But there are ways for a bit of mutual understanding to take root. ■