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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

#71

Post by schoen »

ionwake wrote: post #28

I once decided it would be a cool idea to walk in straight line across England and began wondering how I would plan it. For some reason I noticed and realised my half way mark was a few meters away from this tree. As in if you look at a map the tree sits in the center of England where its diameter is at its narrowest - check it out. An odd thing. Looking at the topography from google maps and I remember thinking what…

If you're still interested in this, Tom Davies (Geowizard) has done the straight-line crossing in a couple of different countries and posted videos, both of some of the planning and logistics and of actually doing it.

Two of the most relevant are walking all across Wales in a straight line (which did involve trespass on some farms) and dribbling a soccer ball the entire length of the Hadrian's Wall path.

He calls these "straight line missions". Maybe it will inspire you to try some form of this sport, or maybe you'll just enjoy Tom's experiences.

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

#73

Post by indigochill »

pdpi wrote: post #27
crtified wrote: post #14

I wish the tree had not been felled. A very sad and poignant act. Also, as I pointed out in another conversation here, and in the name of reciprocal repetition will do so again here, it is quite easy to find reports of equally heartbroken locals, the world over, lamenting the deliberate felling of any number of special, beloved, prominent trees, in the name of the routine building of a new road or factory or housing…

At least felling trees to build things serves a purpose. Are those things worth the cost? Debatable, but at least there’s some attempt at justification. This one is particularly heartbreaking because you can’t even apply that cynical utilitarian logic to it. It seems like a completely wanton act of vandalism.

> At least felling trees to build things serves a purpose. Are those things worth the cost?

I spent a little time in Finland a while back and although I didn't look deeply into it, my impression was they had a healthy relationship with trees. The country is heavily forested and they harvest many trees but they also replant diligently. One of the guys I spent a little time with there was also researching plant-based alternatives to plastics (in the vein of the infamous paper straws, plant-based wrappers instead of plastic wrappers, that kind of thing).

Deforestation is absolutely a problem in some areas of the world, but tree farming can be done responsibly. They're an endlessly renewable resource if we only give them the space and time to grow.

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

#74

Post by davidvaughan »

huytersd wrote: post #68
jacquesm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If he’s guilty, won’t he be identified? It’s public record then right?

The adult person under investigation has been named by the media. There is also a 16-year-old, who is too young to be publicly identified.

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

#75

Post by davidvaughan »

jacquesm wrote: post #24
politelemon wrote: post #7

Is the motive behind the felling still unknown?

Two people have been arrested, and there is a ton of speculation but those suspected deny having anything to do with it. https://www.perthnow.com.au/travel/europe/sycamore-gap-was-t... (that's an Australian site but I've yet to see a UK one with the same level of balance and detail)

Do I detect some Aussie tongue in cheek here...

"Mr Renwick was quick to protest his innocence. “You’ve got the wrong feller,” he told reporters."

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

#76

Post by [deleted] »

mvdtnz wrote: post #45
jihadjihad wrote: post #42

> Unlike other members of the genus Acer, it did not put on a blazing autumn display. Its big five-lobed leaves, with their irregular notching, merely turned a crumpled brown. No one minded. As someone who lives next to a neighbor with an enormous old sycamore--I mind! :P The leaves are gigantic and they fall late into Nov, so my entire property gets blanketed with sheets of brown cardstock! Alas it is worth the effo…

Oh no I'm so sorry you have to deal with nature.

[deleted]

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

#77

Post by GauntletWizard »

Nursie wrote: post #66
extraduder_ire wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sits in the center of England where its diameter is at its narrowest Seems like a good place to put a wall to split the land in two then. I wasn't aware until just now that the modern border of scotland is a good bit north of where Hadrian's wall is.

But South of the Antonine Wall. Hadrian's gets all the recognition, and that's probably mostly because it is still recognisable, but the Romans built a second wall 20 years later, just to the north of where Glasgow and Edinburgh are now - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall It was built mostly of turf and wood, so time has erased it much more completely, and apparently they retreated back to Hadrian's wall af…

That might be another reason that Hadrian's Wall is more remembered - It's one they held for a reasonably long time (generations) whereas Antonine's was far more ephemeral in that way too.

The Berlin Wall is almost gone, but I don't think anyone will forget it in a hurry.

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

#78

Post by desas »

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…

> 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 ugly

In the UK we have listed some of our most famous brutalist buildings for protection. This includes the Barbican Centre in London and the Corbusier inspired Park Hill in Sheffield - the largest listed building in Europe. It's not without controversy though.

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

#79

Post by KennyBlanken »

pstuart wrote: post #58
oooyay wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Portland they recently started cutting trees down to widen the road for extended bus and bike lanes. That spawned a conversation that we've lost a third of our tree cover due to various things and the city hasn't kept up. That week I started burying cones from my Douglas Firs, which aren't nearly as big as the Mountain Ashes you planted, but are fairly large. With any luck I'll have five in my yard.

The other Portland tree fail was where the city did plant trees they didn't bother to care for them: https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/08/09/trees-planted-by-the-c... It would be nice to see more government collaboration where citizens can assist in ways that will actually stick.

It's not a "tree fail" to remove some trees if it means a substantial conversion of passenger car to bus and bike use which reduces CO2 consumption.

If the bike lane causes one person to give up their car and commute by bike, that's worth hundreds of trees per year.

The same is true for solar. There are a lot of cases where cutting down a few trees for a solar array means a substantial increase in CO2 offset, more than the cut down trees would have provided.

I wish uninformed people would stop trying to "gotcha" environmental progress. Believe it or not, the people planning these things are much more educated in the subject than a bunch of software engineers and "entrepreneurs"

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

#80

Post by dudeinjapan »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #79
pstuart wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other Portland tree fail was where the city did plant trees they didn't bother to care for them: https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/08/09/trees-planted-by-the-c... It would be nice to see more government collaboration where citizens can assist in ways that will actually stick.

It's not a "tree fail" to remove some trees if it means a substantial conversion of passenger car to bus and bike use which reduces CO2 consumption. If the bike lane causes one person to give up their car and commute by bike, that's worth hundreds of trees per year . The same is true for solar. There are a lot of cases where cutting down a few trees for a solar array means a substantial increase in CO2 offset, more t…

Try telling that to the trees.
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