Campaigners are trying to save trees from the chop.

Brighton and Hove City Council has been clearing scrub land at the city’s largest nature reserve.

But residents fear the work will leave Wild Park, which stretches from Moulsecoomb to Hollingbury with no birds and looking ugly.

The campaigners spent the weekend tying ribbons to the oldest and biggest trees in the park to show the trees they are desperate to save.

Campaigner Sue Grimstone said: “The work to clear the park has only just started and the end plan is nothing but horrifying.

“Everyone that I have since spoken to in the area is unaware of the extent. There are now a growing group of very angry local people who intend to fight this. The council seem adamant this is right, something that we cannot believe, to clear so much which is so established for the sake of flowers and butterflies that do not exist yet.

“Whilst the council and rangers show a picture of the planned clearance at the park it is not until you go onto their web site that you discover the enormous amount that they intend to clear.

“This Park has been left alone for well over 30 years and now has a wide variety of what the council call scrub, which includes trees and a very mature section of hawthorn, and the woodland paths around the top of the bowl between the blackthorns which will all be destroyed.”

Plans for Wild Park have been published on the council’s website.

A spokesman for the council said the work would improve wildlife in the area.

He added: “The council is working with the Friends of Wild Park to improve the management of the Wild Park Local Nature Reserve. Early in 2010 scrub was removed to reverse the decline of the last few decades while diverse areas of scrub important for birds and invertebrates will be retained and managed to increase their value for wildlife.”

Residents living near another Brighton beauty spot have also expressed concerns about trees being cut down.

A large cedar tree and several cherry trees have been cut down to stumps in Stamner Park.

A nearby resident said: “I can’t see any reason why they would need to cut so much. Even if they were diseased, they could have been left looking nicer.”