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Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

hexham-courant.co.uk

31–40 of 209 posts

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#31
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if such tennant can be evicted.

If it's found they felled the tree then they're in a lot of trouble.

Sadly it would be pretty hard to pin this on them. Farmers and field owners get away with almost anything in the UK. Look at the gorse fires or the state of Lough Neagh.

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#32

I'm sure you can do "tooth pattern CSI" on a chain saw cut to prove which chain saw made it.

You can do better than that, cleaning a saw to the point where there is no debris on it from a recent cut is pretty difficult. I'm fairly sure my saw still has bits on it from trees in Canada and that's 15 years ago. This tree is pretty unique, you're going to have a very hard time proving that bits found that match the tree are from any other tree that you may have cut, especially if you can't show where you did tha…

Let's use some tree DNA to solve this case.

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#33

Most of modern Scotland was forest up until a fairly recent time. The felling of one tree is an instagram tragedy; the felling of one billion is an economic statistic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_Forest

Right, so we can just completely ignore the symbolic/iconic importance. I don't know why I've seen Instagram mentioned several times already but it's recognition as a place of significant natural beauty and featuring in all sorts of media was WELL before some stupid website of people sharing photos existed.

> we can just completely ignore the symbolic/iconic importance.

I think the person above was arguing for the opposite of this: Not that we should ignore this tragedy, but that we should more viscerally feel the extent of the greater tragedy and put energy into righting it.

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#34

Most of modern Scotland was forest up until a fairly recent time. The felling of one tree is an instagram tragedy; the felling of one billion is an economic statistic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_Forest

Right, so we can just completely ignore the symbolic/iconic importance. I don't know why I've seen Instagram mentioned several times already but it's recognition as a place of significant natural beauty and featuring in all sorts of media was WELL before some stupid website of people sharing photos existed.

The point is not that Instagram is the cause. It is the fact that upward movement in class worldwide has provided almost a billion extra people as tourists in just one generation, and the most commonly 'grammed locations tend to attract people that would not have otherwise learned about them.

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#35

Most of modern Scotland was forest up until a fairly recent time. The felling of one tree is an instagram tragedy; the felling of one billion is an economic statistic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_Forest

Perspective on "fairly recent" from wiki: > An examination of the earliest maps of Scotland suggests that the extent of the Caledonian Forest remnants has changed little since 1600.

"Recent" is always a funny thing. In my mind 1600 is roughly the start, or a little after the start, of the modern period, therefore recent.

Who was it that said "In Europe 100 miles is a long way, in America 100 years is a long time?"

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#36
post #7

'we have reason to believe it was deliberately felled' One look at the base of that trunk and I think you can upgrade that to 'we know it was deliberately felled'.

Snark aside: They need to make sure that someone wasn't trying to take down a different tree and made a mistake.

Highly unlikely, that can happen in a dense forest with unmarked trees but this is controlled land and there is only the one tree there in that particular setting.

Also: then the tree would have been stripped and removed. Someone just cut it down and ran off.

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perspective on "fairly recent" from wiki: > An examination of the earliest maps of Scotland suggests that the extent of the Caledonian Forest remnants has changed little since 1600.

"Recent" is always a funny thing. In my mind 1600 is roughly the start, or a little after the start, of the modern period, therefore recent. Who was it that said "In Europe 100 miles is a long way, in America 100 years is a long time?"

That's a surprisingly difficult question to answer.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/09/who-said-brits-think-100-mi...

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#38
post #22
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens when an unstoppable instagram generation meets an immovable NIMBY.

The popularity of that tree predates Instagram. Insta might exacerbate the phenomenon but it's not new. E.g. Rick Steves and Cinque Terre.

As I touched on in another comment, social media is a disproportionate attractor of travelers for many famous locations around the world, especially for those that are "out of the way". In addition, there is an influx of global middle class with the newly found means to travel. Over a billion people in a generation.

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#39
post #7

'we have reason to believe it was deliberately felled' One look at the base of that trunk and I think you can upgrade that to 'we know it was deliberately felled'.

The cut is too straight and flat to be an amateur with a chainsaw.

A cheapo chainsaw wouldn't be long enough to do this without needing to go in from both sides.

There is also a paint line along the cut. Who paints along the line they're about to cut if they're just cutting down a tree?

Re: Iconic tree at Hadrian's Wall's 'Sycamore Gap' has been 'felled'

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perspective on "fairly recent" from wiki: > An examination of the earliest maps of Scotland suggests that the extent of the Caledonian Forest remnants has changed little since 1600.

"Recent" is always a funny thing. In my mind 1600 is roughly the start, or a little after the start, of the modern period, therefore recent. Who was it that said "In Europe 100 miles is a long way, in America 100 years is a long time?"

I love in the US when people boast their house was built in the 1800s. 1800s! In England I consider that fancy new construction.

But yes, it boggles peoples' minds in England when you travel more than a couple of hours by car to go anywhere. If I told a Brit I drove my car 2500 miles to L.A. on a whim they would have me institutionalized.

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