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

hexham-courant.co.uk

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

#82
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we say the same statement with human instead of tree?

Are you really comparing cutting down a tree to murdering a human being?

more or less, a tree is highly beneficial to the environment, it takes a long time to replace it (10+ years for that size, which is important for many other species, if only it manage to grow back), a human is not often beneficial on the other side

we could compare human and an insect even, or a human and a whale, it's not really about size

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

#83

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 may have originally looked a bit more like the wall of Rindoon, County Roscommon, Ireland: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rindoon_Wall_28-10-2...

Rindoon is one of the most intact medieval villages (ruins). Thankfully it hasn't yet been vandalised, reconstructed or commercialised. As common for archaeological sites across Ireland, it is an amazing place to visit, particularly as you'd probably have it all to yourself to explore depending on season and day.

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

#84
post #62

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.

The problem is proving it; everyone in rural areas know of things that occur "outside the law" and exactly who did it, but there's no court-admissible evidence.

Court admissible evidence is more likely to turn up when it's front page news and people are digging though.

Same with the recent story about a famous pub called the Crooked House, which mysteriously caught fire a month after a new owner took over the closed premises and was demolished remarkably swiftly. Because it generated a lot of outrage (not from regular patrons, but from people who liked how it looked), it got more attention than your average arson where the owners were obvious suspects, and sure enough there have been actual arrests as well as rumours about other fires involving the same owners and evidence of demolition equipment having been leased the day before the fire

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

#85
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'.

This is the correct language from the perspective of how things ought to be done, and journalists in the USA would do well to follow this example.

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

#86

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

Yes, it's just a tree. A new tree can grow. The Philistine instagrammers will be disappointed. So sad. It's not a Roman tree. A new tree literally grows (on) trees.

Depending on the tree, not in your lifetime it won’t.

I have a rather nice oak tree that shades my house and my lawn. If someone chops it down, I could plant a new one. It would take 80 years to reach a similar size.

For many species it takes much longer than that.

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

#89

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.

You've misunderstood me. Cutting down this tree in the UK also needs permission. The question is only whether the landowner in question can or would be tied to the crime and punished.

This is also an issue in the NL. I grew up in the UK but I've lived the most significant years of my life in the NL so I feel like I can speak a bit to both cases. If something happens in the countryside with noone around to see there's very little that can be done, there's a certain impunity or a security through obscurity that exists outside of cities.

And I know that this is HN and what I'm about to say doesn't quite meet general etiquette rules here, but the idea that farmers are somehow more controlled in the NL than elsewhere is laughable when the literal Farmers Party is one of the main political forces in the country.

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