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The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

economist.com

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Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#31

Post by smolder »

11235813213455 wrote: post #8

Let's fall a hundred of SUVs to balance the prejudice

Besides this being ridiculous, I can't make sense of what "balance the prejudice" means. I'm not seeing evidence of prejudice against trees here, nor do I know what that would mean. Someone prejudged that the tree was up to no good and murdered it?

This is almost definitely vandalism, and likely has nothing to do with the conflict between modernity and nature, or with SUVs. The crime wasn't committed by Chevy or Ford, or by an SUV of theirs.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#32

Post by dukeyukey »

jibbit wrote: post #16

What’s kinda poignant is that there was one tree left where there should be a forest, and you’re directed to feel angry when it is cut down

Much of the UK was deforested at a minimum hundreds of years ago, and often thousands of years ago. Today, England is about 13% forest, and back in 1086 when the Domesday Book was written it was about 15%.

Basically, this isn't new. At all.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#33

Post by gambiting »

jibbit wrote: post #16

What’s kinda poignant is that there was one tree left where there should be a forest, and you’re directed to feel angry when it is cut down

Have you ever been there? The land in that area is rock with about an inch of soil on it, like most moorland - it would not support a forest, it never did(within the last couple thousand years anyway) . Romans didn't build the hadrians wall through a forest after all, the area was already barren then.

And no one is directing me to feel angry - the tree did hold a special place in my heart, I've been to it with my dad shortly before he died, I've been there with my wife(then fiance), with my friends and family, it always felt like a pilgrimage to anyone living in the North East - and the fact that it was destroyed for literally no reason whatsoever makes my blood boil.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#34

Post by dukeyukey »

swayvil wrote: post #23

The American aborigines did their thing for what, 10,000 years? (Yes, I know they arguably sucked. But still) Industrial civilization may not make it to 300.

A thousand years ago (and with about a fortieth the population) England had similar forest cover to what it is now. If anything, modern industrial civilization is what enabled the reforestation of the UK.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#35

Post by jacquesm »

andrewstuart wrote: post #29

There was a local project here on the railway lines. As part of the project they had to cut down a long row of giant pine trees in the park next to the train line. So when the railway project was complete I took my 8 year old son to the native nursery about bought ten mountain ash seedlings. Together we planted them in a long line in the park. Here's pictures of how big mountain ash gets: https://wilderlands.earth/st…

The trust in charge of the grounds will dig them up again, people have already done this. Which by the way makes the trust look both stupid and tone-deaf.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#36

Post by op00to »

jacquesm wrote: post #35
andrewstuart wrote: post #29

There was a local project here on the railway lines. As part of the project they had to cut down a long row of giant pine trees in the park next to the train line. So when the railway project was complete I took my 8 year old son to the native nursery about bought ten mountain ash seedlings. Together we planted them in a long line in the park. Here's pictures of how big mountain ash gets: https://wilderlands.earth/st…

The trust in charge of the grounds will dig them up again, people have already done this. Which by the way makes the trust look both stupid and tone-deaf.

At least in the US, railroads don’t give a shit about the physical state of their right-of-way.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#37

Post by jacquesm »

gambiting wrote: post #33
jibbit wrote: post #16

What’s kinda poignant is that there was one tree left where there should be a forest, and you’re directed to feel angry when it is cut down

Have you ever been there? The land in that area is rock with about an inch of soil on it, like most moorland - it would not support a forest, it never did(within the last couple thousand years anyway) . Romans didn't build the hadrians wall through a forest after all, the area was already barren then. And no one is directing me to feel angry - the tree did hold a special place in my heart, I've been to it with my dad…

I have never been there and it makes me pretty angry as well. The coward(s) that did this probably never suspected the kind of blowback this would create, if they're ever identified they'll have a hard time moving around the UK without meeting people that would like to have a word with them.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#38

Post by pvaldes »

gambiting wrote: post #33
jibbit wrote: post #16

What’s kinda poignant is that there was one tree left where there should be a forest, and you’re directed to feel angry when it is cut down

Have you ever been there? The land in that area is rock with about an inch of soil on it, like most moorland - it would not support a forest, it never did(within the last couple thousand years anyway) . Romans didn't build the hadrians wall through a forest after all, the area was already barren then. And no one is directing me to feel angry - the tree did hold a special place in my heart, I've been to it with my dad…

> The land in that area is rock with about an inch of soil on it

Because people abusing of wildfires and a spiral of overgrazing = more wildfires required, that is apparently a behavior as infectious as it was yesterday.

Lack of soil is not an unsolvable problem. Soil can be moved from A to B so we can trow technology at this (and a lot of big shrubs can deal with poor soil, leading the way to bigger trees). The problem is the lack of will, and the never ending presence of criminal activity. If there is cattle in the area, there is a dictatorship of cattle.

Re: The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people's hearts

#39

Post by c5karl »

jfengel wrote: post #13
doctorpangloss wrote: post #10

In my community: I love the cutsie pootsie Victorians everywhere, the time-capsule 1910s look. Some people want to make it easier to demolish this stuff and build whatever house you want - the rule is you have to keep the facade or whatever - and I sympathize with that. But nobody gives a fuck about the brutalist structures being torn down, like the VA in Chicago or the Federal Building in Boston, because they're ugl…

It's notable that this tree was probably a few hundred years old. That's not especially old by European or tree standards, and this tree was of no real historical significance. But it's older than any of those structures you describe. The brutalist structures might one day be beloved. Perhaps a few centuries from now. They're certainly built for it; one problem with them is that they're hard to demolish. (And often l…

Brutalist does not have to be ugly. The Washington, D.C., subway system is brutalist, but Harry Weese's design for the system is beloved by locals and visitors alike.

There are ugly buildings of every architectural style.

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