It happened overnight. Protected by private security guards, Plymouth city workers fenced off the boulevard known as Armada Way, took out their chainsaws and felled in a matter of hours more than 100 mature trees that had shaded the promenade for more than half a century.. Barely 15 were saved by a petition in the middle of the night before the courts of the local environmental group Straw, alleging the nesting season of the birds, the public interest and the more than 16,000 signatures collected against logging.

But the Plymouth 'arboricide' had already been consummated. The neighbors woke up to the grove that made its way to the sea turned into a wasteland with piles of firewood piled up. The explanations about the 'remodeling' of the Armada Way to turn it into a European-style avenue were of little use to them.

Conservative Richard Bingley, leader of the local council (equivalent to mayor), was forced to resign by the protests and his party paid for it weeks later with a defeat at the polls. Labor Tudor Evans promised to “rescue” the lost grove as much as possible and “reunite the divided city” by an urban fiasco comparable to the “Sheffield massacre”, which involved the felling of 6,000 trees in what was considered the city greenest in Europe.

“The decision to fell trees has been enormously damaging to Plymouth, which had a reputation for passionately defending its green transition,” Tudor Evans declared at the time of stopping the project and starting a new period of consultation with the public.. “There are many lessons we can learn from this unfortunate incident that has polarized public opinion.”

The naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham has been at the forefront of the chorus of personalities who have openly condemned the logging: “From one day to the next, the local government felled 100 trees in the center of the city. It was a scene of environmental devastation and municipal vandalism. I am appalled by the actions of the tories in the council. These have been sad days for Plymouth.”

“The felled trees were planted after World War II and were symbolic of Plymouth's renaissance,” recalls Alison White, founder of STRAW (Save the Trees of Armada Way).. “We support the regeneration of the city center, but we do not understand how you can start by razing a hundred trees that provided shade and shelter, that improved air quality and guaranteed cooling in summer and rainwater collection” .

For weeks, the neighbors stood guard to save the trees, 'dressed' their trunks with knitting, involved the children in the campaign. Urged by the Plymouth City Center Company, and at the risk of losing grants for an estimated €14 million redevelopment, the logging was given the go-ahead by city council in mid-March, setting off a chain reaction elsewhere in the UK.

From Plymouth, the Devon port city of 250,000, the spark has jumped to Wellingborough, in central England, which has closed ranks in defense of its centuries-old lime trees. And from there to the London neighborhood of Haringey, where the Tree Protectors have launched a protest for months to save a 120-year-old banana tree from felling.