Protesters take to the trees

The Windsor Park oaks: Chain-saws silenced by action to save Queen Anne's Ride

Tree-top protesters halted the felling of an avenue of ancient oaks in Windsor Great Park yesterday in defiance of the Duke of Edinburgh who ordered their clearance.

The 300-year-old oaks along Queen Anne's Ride, a valuable wildlife habitat, are being felled so a new and straighter avenue can be planted. Over the centuries the avenue, which originally also contained lime and elm, has become dominated by oak trees. Many trees have also died, leaving gaps in the avenue.

The work is designed to clear the avenue and then to re-plant it with younger trees. The protesters object to the tree-culling because the oaks provide a valuable habitat for rare insects, mosses, lichens and fungi.

Half a dozen protesters arrived early yesterday morning and climbed into the trees and strung hammocks between them. When the workmen arrived they found the protesters ferrying supplies into the trees. Several more arrived last night.

One of the activists, who declined to be named, said: "How many people do you know who've got a tree like this in their back garden that they're willing to trash? This is all because someone doesn't want them in a wonky line."

Another protester, known as Sunflower, said he was caught on the ground when the workers arrived: "I stood under the tree so they couldn't work without endangering my life. They've had an extended tea-break and put their toys away - for now."

In total about 50 oaks will be cleared and the Crown Estates, which runs the Park, says that they will be replaced by 1,000 younger ones. Many of the felled trees will be transferred to nearby copses so their rotting wood will provide a valuable habitat for wildlife.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Estates said they had stopped felling work when the protesters arrived and were now watching the situation.

She said they had a lot of practice in "maintaining" avenues of trees. "The Long Walk, which is probably one of the most visited avenues in the country, was clear-felled in 1940 and already it looks absolutely marvellous." .

English Nature also objects to the tree-felling. Simon Melville, a spokesman, said: "Trees of this sort are very rare in Britain. In a ideal world they would not be felled but in this instance they only represent a small part of the total number and they will be replaced by a thousand new oak trees."