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

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

#51

Post by londons_explore »

kikokikokiko wrote: post #29

Slightly related: I always get surprised by how "small" Hadrian wall is. I mean, it was just to demarcate tthe point where the barbarians "should not" cross I believe? For sure it wasn't working as a regular wall to stop any invasions.

The wall is nearly 2000 years old.

It used to be 15 feet high and 10 feet wide. [1]

Nearly everything else that old has fallen down to the foundations. It turns out nature is good at knocking stuff down till it's about a foot high, and then just leaves the footings of all the walls.

Plenty of castles and stuff have 1 foot high walls now.

Also, people steal the stones to build other stuff. But it's more effort to steal stones already buried in the ground.

[1]: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+high+was+hadrians+wall

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

#54

Post by drunkan »

colesantiago wrote: post #16

So? It's just a tree, why should we care about it just because a random person planted a seed a hundred years ago?

Ah yes a member of the ever growing "why should I care about anything unless it personally effects me" crowd.

May as well proudly bear a tatoo of the word selfish on your forehead.

I imagine if someone chopped down a protected tree in an act of vandalism that you grew up seeing every day, carved your names in, or proposed under suddenly you would be filled with outrage after personally being effected.

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

#55

Post by tssva »

kikokikokiko wrote: post #29

Slightly related: I always get surprised by how "small" Hadrian wall is. I mean, it was just to demarcate tthe point where the barbarians "should not" cross I believe? For sure it wasn't working as a regular wall to stop any invasions.

It was 3m thick and 4.2m tall with guard posts every 1/3rd mile. Seems like pretty significant defense to invasions.

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

#56

Post by soneil »

kergonath wrote: post #46
jacquesm wrote: 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'.

That’s the expected British understatement, it’s just how the police communicates there.

I think it's the correct terminology here. The police believe and suspect, the court try and prove. Arrests are always made 'on suspicion of'.

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

#57

Post by yourusername »

jacquesm wrote: post #43
AlecSchueler wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe you but I find it hard to imagine that something like this would go without serious consequences. Here in NL cutting down any tree, even if it is on your own land requires a permit. Doing it without a permit to a vandalize a valuable piece of heritage should not be without consequences.

> Here in NL cutting down any tree, even if it is on your own land requires a permit.

Depends on the municipality. Rules around cutting down trees vary from "go ahead if it's not one of these 5 protected trees" to "please pay 1000 euro to request a permit 6 weeks in advance".

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

#58

Post by Kon-Peki »

jacquesm wrote: post #36
Kon-Peki wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Low probability does not mean zero probability, and the vast majority of an investigator's job is dealing with low probability events. Journalists want them to make definitive statements about things that occurred just hours earlier, and their experience says that don't yet know enough to make such a definitive statement. Give 'em a break :)

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

#59

Post by lawlessone »

kikokikokiko wrote: post #32
jacquesm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They'll probably have good idea if anyone rented or owns equipment too.

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

#60

Post by jacquesm »

yourusername wrote: post #57
jacquesm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you but I find it hard to imagine that something like this would go without serious consequences. Here in NL cutting down any tree, even if it is on your own land requires a permit. Doing it without a permit to a vandalize a valuable piece of heritage should not be without consequences.

> Here in NL cutting down any tree, even if it is on your own land requires a permit. Depends on the municipality. Rules around cutting down trees vary from "go ahead if it's not one of these 5 protected trees" to "please pay 1000 euro to request a permit 6 weeks in advance".

Go ahead is still a permit though.
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