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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'

#181

Post by shapefrog »

nkurz wrote: post #95
kitd wrote: post #87

Teenager arrested: https://news.sky.com/story/sycamore-gap-iconic-tree-at-hadri...

What's the right punishment for a case like this? Does anyone believe that full rehabilitation is possible, and that a teenager who does this will later come to realize the error of their ways and become be a valuable contributor to society sufficient to make up for this? Or is the sole goal a punishment that will deter others from doing similar anti-social deeds?

> What's the right punishment for a case like this?

Run a chainsaw through them at the same height as they ran it through the tree - no need for further punishment.

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

#182

Post by mytailorisrich »

jfengel wrote: post #147

I was trying to figure out the significance of this tree. It is alongside the wall but does not date to its construction, or anywhere near. It is several hundred years old, which is certainly remarkable though far from unique. It seems to be known primarily for being picturesque, which is less about the tree itself and more for being located in an interesting gap in the hills. It shows up in a number of movies, and a…

This is a tree that was probably touched by both Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman. This is close to holiness.

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

#183

Post by kergonath »

soneil wrote: post #56
kergonath wrote: post #46

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'.

Exactly. Personally I find that really good: factual and rational without being unnecessarily accusatory.

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

#184

Post by noelwelsh »

qingcharles wrote: post #40
AlecSchueler wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

2500 miles from London puts you somewhere in central Asia. I found the following route, which is just shy of that distance: https://www.distance.to/London/Samara,Samara-Oblast,RUS It would be an amazing trip, but it would involve crossing many borders and going through some fairly dodgy countries. I think there is a reasonable case that no sane person would do that on a whim.

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

#185

Post by justinclift »

pvaldes wrote: post #160
bombcar wrote: post #64

Can you put it back together? I mean normally you wouldn't even try, but if you cut a tree like that and stick the two halves back together and support it, could it remain alive? I know you can graft branches ...

In theory yes, but in the best cases you would have a very heavy load joined by stitches and not much more. Plus a few flattened tourists at the first breeze. An engineer could design a device gluing a inner core of hard wood or so, but we would need an expert on materials for that, and political will to allocate resources and do it fast. The tree will regrow from the basis and grow fast for a while, but its health i…

> An engineer could design a device gluing a inner core of hard wood or so ...

You'd probably be better off to use an internal splint/pin of some sort.

Rough guess (with no calculations done), something along the lines of drilling a 30cm wide hole both ~half a metre upwards into the remaining trunk, and downwards into the stump, then fit a matching stainless steel rod to mount the tree back onto the stump.

To keep it from spinning on that rod (!), you'd probably use a second smaller pin (20cm x 40cm?) offset a bit.

No idea how to splice the upper and lower bark together though, such that there is adequate nutrient flow. :(

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

#186

Post by jibbit »

amiga386 wrote: post #128

Can I just say this: BASTARD. What kind of bastard destroys such a thing of natural beauty? This bastard is not alone, there are other bastards out there. For example, Sheffield council: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/06/sheffield-ci... and Plymouth council: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64961358 and this guy: https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/19660776.northwood-ma... and especially t…

Hs2 needlessly cut down thousands of ancient oaks

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

#187

Post by pvaldes »

barbazoo wrote: post #171
pvaldes wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you want to destroy the spirit of a country don't kill its people, burn its forests, fell the trees, and destroy its prized cultural artifacts" The oldest trick in the book of war

Or, more likely, just a city council or urban planning department that doesn't care about nature conservation.

Wood thieves fall in a different category; Those are the worst offenders by number. Companies or local goverments stealing trees from public parks has became a too common activity since the austericide. Very profitable also; most people don't understand that plants have a big economical value just as raw materials. But is not this case; nobody tried to remove the wood.

Revenge is a fact. Some protected very old oaks had been killed in Spain after tourism to see them became too invasive. Probably not the same with the sycamore, but it could be a team of badly advised locals, for sure.

The fact is that there is a global pattern in Europe and USA of manipulating rednecks and gullible people against nature. Social media is doing this all the time resulting in a lot of wildfires in Europe lately. Remote manipulation seems probable here.

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

#188

Post by afiori »

jacquesm wrote: post #30
blondie9x wrote: post #27

This is a crime. A terrible senseless crime in a time of environmental destruction by mankind. What we need to do is take any seeds of this tree and plant 20-100 of its potential children in the area. We need to grind this tree up and make food and strengthen the soil for the future trees in the site. Potentially we then need more cameras or tighter restrictions when it comes to visiting the site during off hours. Wh…

I was with you until the cameras. But I'd be happy to contribute to a bounty to catch whoever did this. I have similar feelings for tourists that climb on monuments as well (or that scratch their names into them).

I wonder if medium range/resolution sonar or sound cameras [0] could be useful for low resolution tracking.

It would probably still be a bad idea

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_camera

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

#189

Post by helsinkiandrew »

jibbit wrote: post #186
amiga386 wrote: post #128

Can I just say this: BASTARD. What kind of bastard destroys such a thing of natural beauty? This bastard is not alone, there are other bastards out there. For example, Sheffield council: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/06/sheffield-ci... and Plymouth council: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64961358 and this guy: https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/19660776.northwood-ma... and especially t…

Hs2 needlessly cut down thousands of ancient oaks

> Hs2 needlessly cut down thousands of ancient oaks

That depends whether you agree that HS2 is justified. HS2 would argue that the loss to humanity/UK of cutting down those ancient oaks is worth it due to the benefits of HS2.

Whereas cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree benefited no one.

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

#190

Post by moritonal »

appplication wrote: post #156
amiga386 wrote: post #128

Can I just say this: BASTARD. What kind of bastard destroys such a thing of natural beauty? This bastard is not alone, there are other bastards out there. For example, Sheffield council: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/06/sheffield-ci... and Plymouth council: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64961358 and this guy: https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/19660776.northwood-ma... and especially t…

What is the meaning of all of this? Is this just anti-social behavior seeping into city councils? Is there some political motive here?

In almost every case it's because the tree's are stopping a guy from making some money. It's that simple.
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