A tree almost as old as America was cut down in minutes. Who was sitting in it?

The tree came down in a matter of minutes.

On Monday 5 October, crews cut down a cottonwood in southern Arizona that reports say was up to 250 years old. The United States turned 250 this year.

A crane lifted a protester out of its branches first. Then the saws started.

That person had been living in the tree for 71 days, says Russ McSpadden of the Center for Biological Diversity. Video of the raid spread online this week, and people keep asking the same thing.

Why was one tree worth a raid by federal agents?

Where did this tree stand?

It grew in the San Rafael Valley, in grassland near the tiny town of Lochiel, right on the Arizona border with Mexico. KJZZ, the Arizona public radio station, calls the valley a biodiversity hotspot.

Protesters called the tree "the Grandmother." It was the last of a grove of about four big cottonwoods standing in the path of the new border wall. Contractors cut the other three down in July, before the camp was set up.

Cottonwoods are huge shade trees that grow along desert rivers. In a dry place, one old tree gives shade, food and nesting space for a lot of animals.

How old was the tree, really?

Nobody knows for sure, because nobody counted the rings. Reports give three different answers.

Even the lowest figure means it was already growing long before anyone alive today was born. The highest would make it nearly as old as the country.

Photo: Joshua Tree National Park / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Who was living in the tree?

Activists camped around the cottonwood for about 70 days, according to KJZZ. They wanted to stop a second border wall from going through the valley.

One protester went up into the branches and stayed. McSpadden counts 71 days.

Kate Scott, one of the organisers, says the camp was on private land right beside the border. She says the tree itself fell inside the government's easement, the strip of land the government has the right to use for the wall. KJZZ did not name the landowner.

What happened during the raid?

It began early on Monday morning. Activists say federal agents moved in, some of them masked, with tape over their badges. One protester said there were about 50 agents. Scott told KJZZ it was at least 200.

Roughly 50 people were at the camp, Scott says. Activists told reporters that 10 were arrested and 10 more were cited and released. Two more people were detained on Tuesday when work started again.

One citation, for breaking a closure order, comes with a court date on 6 January, KJZZ reports.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not answer questions about the arrests. It also did not say whether agents had a warrant to enter private land.

How did it get from a camp to a raid?

How big is this wall?

The Trump administration is building two parallel steel walls across large parts of the Arizona border, KJZZ reports, including in Lochiel. Each is 30 feet tall.

Congress approved $47 billion for hundreds of miles of new wall during Trump's second term, WBUR reports. KJZZ notes the work comes while border-wide arrests of people crossing are at record lows.

Border towns say the building is rushed and harms nature. This summer, New Mexico officials said contractors had drained an underground water supply by drilling wells without permits. On the Tohono O'odham Nation, crews reportedly damaged a sacred archaeological site.

Photo: Sgt. 1st Class Gordon Hyde / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

That is why one tree became a symbol. For many people it was never only about one cottonwood.

What does the border agency say?

CBP says it recognises the importance of protecting the environment, wildlife and cultural resources. It says all four trees had been marked for removal and that environmental monitors were there first. A check before building found no signs of nesting birds, it says.

It also points to a different kind of damage. It says illegal crossings cause trash, pollution and harm to nature.

Two groups, then, and each says it is the one protecting the land.

Why would a country fight over a tree?

People have done it before. We have written about a man who walked for 28 years to get home because a border once stood in his way. The same pull is at work here. A border is a line on a map, but a tree is something you can touch.

Scott says the removals have "electrified the country." She says her group is newly energised and that protests will continue.

Photo: Electronic Frontier Foundation / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

For a closer look at another fight over federal agents and the public, see our story on the New York shooting that has the city demanding ICE leave.

Is anyone still in a tree?

Yes. On Tuesday, the day after the raid, a protester was sitting in a cottonwood.

This one stands on the Mexico side of the line, activists say.

The new wall does not reach it. Activists say it will take more than one raid to bring that climber down.