A petition calling for stronger laws to protect important trees like the Sycamore Gap is tantalisingly close to its 100,000 target, says the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity.

A year after the Sycamore Gap trees’s devastating overnight felling at its famous Hadrian’s Wall location, a rallying cry for people to back the Woodland Trust’s Living Legends campaign – demanding legal protection for the UK’s oldest and most special trees – has been issued.

More than 95,000 people have already pledged their support, and Trust head of campaigning Adam Cormack says passing the 100,000 mark is a “significant milestone” at a time when tree protection laws in England are under review and a new Tree Protection Bill for Northern Ireland will be out for consultation later this year.