Bunnies and the 'game' of saving Sheffield's trees

People stand around watching, or asking contractors about the wording of the injunction notice and other matters.

One is sporting mittens and a draw-stringed black bag over their head, like a small and crumpled Darth Vader in an anorak.

Just before the final piece of ‘safety zone’ fencing can be slotted into place, the masked person steps inside, leans on the tree, and work stops, probably for the day. A woman reads a poem. Darth Vader is now officially a ‘bunny.’

“In a sense, it’s a game,” says Russell Johnson from Sheffield Tree Action Groups, adding: “Anyone who goes in an active safety zone we nickname a bunny, and recently the bunnies have been masked up.”

Nearby, in Norton Lees, an arborist has started work high in an ash tree, against the autumn backdrop of the Gleadless Valley woodlands. STAG campaigner Celia puts away her phone, and watches sadly.

“Trees are so good for us mentally and emotionally and to stand watching another tree come down is almost physically painful,” she says.

Celia has witnessed insults towards arborists and campaigners on her travels, and says: “We try to deflame the situation. We don’t want anything fiery happening on the streets.”

Like many campaigners she’d like ‘proper’ talks to help calm the situation, and says the felling crews are caught in the middle of the dispute.

“That’s one reason we prefer not to make things more difficult for them, apart from stopping the felling.”

More campaigners arrive, and a woman stands on a garden gate post to film the arborist working with his chainsaw high in the ash tree.

Darth Vader in mittens arrives, steps over the fence, and so work stops again.