Why aren’t there more trees in the Sycamore Gap?

The tragic felling of the tree is making land managers reflect on how this barren landscape should look in future

Last Wednesday night, Britain was robbed of one of its best-loved trees. Mike Pratt, the CEO of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, describes the venerable, now-recumbent sycamore at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian's Wall as a totem tree; a touch point in the landscape".

But the tree, standing alone in a national park, also reminded some of how nature-depleted England is. As environmentalist Ben Goldsmith said at the time: That someone would have destroyed this iconic tree is beyond comprehension; but what's even more shocking is that this was pretty much the only tree in that entire landscape. Our national parks can and should be so much better."