Sycamore gap tree felled - Words Fail Me

[Vanden Saab]

Was it planted by someone involved in the slave trade?

[Hippea]

That’s absolutely sickening, surprised how much this has angered me

[Eric Mc]

eharding said:

sanguinary said:

Someone's gone to a lot of effort to do this and for what appears to be no gain, just pure vandalism.

I'm now starting to wonder if other Trees of the Year have suffered a similar unexplained fate, and whether the police might actually have a serial logger on their hands. You may scoff, but that means there's a nutter with a chainsaw and a grudge out there, and those scenarios rarely end well.

That would make a very interesting mystery. The "Phantom Tree Feller of Hadrian's Wall".

[loudlashadjuster]

eharding said:

English Tree of the Year 2016, apparently. I didn't know there was such a thing, but now I'm wondering about whether Tree of the Year should have an automatic Tree Preservation Order applied.

Yes, a TPO would definitely have prevented this…

[ChevronB19]

Vanden Saab said:

Was it planted by someone involved in the slave trade?

Just don’t be that person? Please?

[Eric Mc]

TheJimi said:

I really can't work out what you're doing here.

One one hand, you appear to be consistently downplaying the significance of the tree, and on the other, you're saying that you're not saying it's ok.

Some people read far too much into things. It was a lovely tree of course and it's a shame someone saw fit to chop it down. I was genuinely curious as to whether it had some famous historical connotations or whether it was just "a nice tree" - one of around 100 million in the UK.

My hunch is that the National Trust might have had something to do with it.

[Gareth79]

eharding said:

sanguinary said:

Someone's gone to a lot of effort to do this and for what appears to be no gain, just pure vandalism.

I'm now starting to wonder if other Trees of the Year have suffered a similar unexplained fate, and whether the police might actually have a serial logger on their hands. You may scoff, but that means there's a nutter with a chainsaw and a grudge out there, and those scenarios rarely end well.

There was a spate of chainsawing public trees a couple of years ago, eg. Elmbridge, I think there were copycats elsewhere at the time too:

https://news.sky.com/story/surrey-the-mystery-of-t...

Eric Mc said:

My hunch is that the National Trust might have had something to do with it.

You think they believe trees are not 'woke'?

[ChevronB19]

Eric Mc said:

So it's significance was its age and location.

It wasn't THAT old by tree standards.

Now *there’s* an opportunity for the use of the phrase ‘words fail me’.

[Patrick Bateman]

Other than sheer spite, are there any particular motives someone might have?

Utter scum.

[ChevronB19]

Eric Mc said:

My hunch is that the National Trust might have had something to do with it.

(Files in troll folder)

[eharding]

loudlashadjuster said:

eharding said:

English Tree of the Year 2016, apparently. I didn't know there was such a thing, but now I'm wondering about whether Tree of the Year should have an automatic Tree Preservation Order applied.

Yes, a TPO would definitely have prevented this…

Obviously not, but it would probably increase the likely penalty for whoever felled it illegally.

[Disastrous]

I hadn’t heard of it until this thread but it seems a stty thing to do. Why, is the obvious question.

[Castrol for a knave]

We can always plant a new tree in the big hole Eric has been digging for himself.

[deckster]

Castrol for a knave said:

We can always plant a new tree in the big hole Eric has been digging for himself.

[Mezzanine]

Castrol for a knave said:

We can always plant a new tree in the big hole Eric has been digging for himself.

[tangerine_sedge]

I've visited the tree many times over the years, it's an iconic point along the wall, and it's almost perfectly beautiful, whether on a sunny day or a more typical wet and windy day.

I'm surprised by my own anger at this happening, and I hope that the 'back up' tree doesn't suffer the same fate, so I can once again see Sycamore gap properly again at some point in the future. Public outrage about this might kick the relevant authorities into protecting more important trees/features in the landscape.

[bobbo89]

They'll get found out, you'd have to be a one man band absolute loner who didn't speak to anyone to get away with this and even then that very fact would put a target on your head, especially if you had the gear. Someone will know and then it'll be the usual "Don't tell anyone but...." scenario until it spreads wide enough to get to the police.

Absolute sthead thing to do but fairs fair, that's a bloody clean job!

[TheJimi]

Eric Mc said:

TheJimi said:

I really can't work out what you're doing here.

One one hand, you appear to be consistently downplaying the significance of the tree, and on the other, you're saying that you're not saying it's ok.

Some people read far too much into things. It was a lovely tree of course and it's a shame someone saw fit to chop it down. I was genuinely curious as to whether it had some famous historical connotations or whether it was just "a nice tree" - one of around 100 million in the UK.

My hunch is that the National Trust might have had something to do with it.

Well, if you don’t want people to read too much into what you say, perhaps it would be worthwhile articulating your posts in a way that doesn’t lead the reader to an obvious conclusion - per your posts on this thread. Well, with the exception of your sarky one-liner at the start; at least that was unequivocal.

[LivLL]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-6694704...

[TTmonkey]

Eric Mc said:

What was the historical significance of this tree - apart from its obvious age?

Robin Hood was seen there. Is that enough for you…?



And his side kick Morgan Freeman.