No Sycamore Gap anymore

[BrianI]

A horrible thing to do. I can only wonder if the motive was simply vandalism or perhaps a landowner's shenanigans (eg objecting to people walking there).

That's what I'm thinking..  Landowner getting fed up with more and more visitors to the tree...

[Tim Hall]

A horrible thing to do. I can only wonder if the motive was simply vandalism or perhaps a landowner's shenanigans (eg objecting to people walking there).

That's what I'm thinking..  Landowner getting fed up with more and more visitors to the tree...

Unlikely. It's a public footpath. It's on Hadrian's Wall. And a 16 year old boy has been arrested.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A horrible thing to do. I can only wonder if the motive was simply vandalism or perhaps a landowner's shenanigans (eg objecting to people walking there).

That's what I'm thinking..  Landowner getting fed up with more and more visitors to the tree...

Unlikely. It's a public footpath. It's on Hadrian's Wall. And a 16 year old boy has been arrested.

And the landowner, it turns out, is the National Trust. My (cynical?) speculation was completely wrong.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Nasty mindless vandalism. Even though one single tree.

In 2022 alone apparently 10500 km² of prime Amazon rainforest, with all the associated biodiversity, was destroyed.

But that wasn't mindless; we ate it in the form of burgers.

[JellyLegs]

By comparison, my dad gave me a walnut sapling in the late 1990s. Sadly, in 2013 we had to remove it because it was far too close to the house - the house had grown to the extent of the granny annexe in which my parents spent their final years - and that was growing very fast indeed. It must have been nearly 20' tall and about 14" diameter at the base. I think walnuts tend to live a long time. The largest I recall seeing was in an ancient farm in the village of Dullingham, where I went camping once with Butterfly & Clarion, amongst others.

They are quick growing.  The one at the far end of my garden is huge.  The trunk must be getting on for 30” diameter and the spread of the canopy is probably close to 40’ across.  It creates a lovely shady nook in the heat of summer.  It doesn’t grow quite as fast as the large willow on the corner of the front drive but it isn’t that far behind.  I don’t know how old it is, but given it’s position in the dead centre of the garden, I suspect it is a maximum of 80 years old as the house wasn’t here before that.  The walnut was one of four that were in this bit of the village though unfortunately it’s the only one left, the others having one by one fallen victim to rot over the last 20 years.

[GdS]

I am pleased that I have had the opportunity to see the sycamore in situ and livid as hell with the utter fuckheads who decided to cut it down.

I'd be tempted to take a chainsaw to their trunks if the opportunity arose.

Utter bastards.

Completely unacceptable post, have reported to Mod 

[Wowbagger]

The Dullingham Walnut tree I mentioned. Bloody big one. Taken August 2017.

Here(ish): http://streetmap.co.uk/map?X=562700&Y=258090&A=Y&Z=120

[IanDG]

One of my boys (who works in forestry in Knoydart) commented

"pretty good felling cut for a 16 year old, undercut the hinge slightly"

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's been commented elsewhere that he probably didn't walk there with a chainsaw and at 16 he probably didn't drive himself.

[IanDG]

It's been commented elsewhere that he probably didn't walk there with a chainsaw and at 16 he probably didn't drive himself.

16 year old boys around here riding quad bikes around farms and local woodlands. But yes, I agree, I doubt it was the work of a single 16 yr old.

[ian]

It’s surely only a matter of time before they blame rewilded beavers.

[rogerzilla]

I am pleased that I have had the opportunity to see the sycamore in situ and livid as hell with the utter fuckheads who decided to cut it down.

I'd be tempted to take a chainsaw to their trunks if the opportunity arose.

Utter bastards.

Completely unacceptable post, have reported to Mod 

1. PB has been called out on it in this thread.
2. I don't think anyone else believed he was serious.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

It’s gone global:

The tree stood proudly for hundreds of years, set alone in a dramatic dip in the Northumberland, England landscape, right by Hadrian’s Wall. Perhaps England’s most-photographed tree, the Sycamore Gap tree drew visitors from afar and appeared in the 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

Now it’s just a stump. The beloved tree’s centuries-old life came to an end in what authorities think was a deliberate act of vandalism. The police arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of felling the famous tree Thursday.

WaPo
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/3b4d51e/65164cfc38ed510b3f25a390/5ee9ca4b9bbc0f3a7811aa93/33/72/65164cfc38ed510b3f25a390

[rogerzilla]

One of my boys (who works in forestry in Knoydart) commented

"pretty good felling cut for a 16 year old, undercut the hinge slightly"

I also thought it was a neat job.  Not the work of someone who's never done it before.

Anyway, possible solutions, after dealing with the perpetrators:

1. Transplant the biggest sycamore you can move
2. NT sell artefacts made from the wood of the original.  It'll work.

[sam]

I watched a horror movie unfold in front of our house last year. Ash dieback, sure, but they went quite overboard. Hundreds of undeserving trees felled. It completely changed the character of the view we'd enjoyed for 20 years, ripping away the magical secret privacy.

[T42]

One of my boys (who works in forestry in Knoydart) commented

"pretty good felling cut for a 16 year old, undercut the hinge slightly"

I also thought it was a neat job.  Not the work of someone who's never done it before.

Anyway, possible solutions, after dealing with the perpetrators:

1. Transplant the biggest sycamore you can move
2. NT sell artefacts made from the wood of the original.  It'll work.

And hang the little shit from it.  NT could have the rope after he's rotted and fallen off.

[rafletcher]

One of my boys (who works in forestry in Knoydart) commented

"pretty good felling cut for a 16 year old, undercut the hinge slightly"

I also thought it was a neat job.  Not the work of someone who's never done it before.

Anyway, possible solutions, after dealing with the perpetrators:

1. Transplant the biggest sycamore you can move
2. NT sell artefacts made from the wood of the original.  It'll work.

Sycamores are weeds thoughbut. Plant something like a Black Poplar, Hornbeam or Whitebeam.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

What is a weed?

A plant growing in the wrong place?

Clearly the sycamore was growing in the right place by popular consent!  It would be wrong to replace it with a different species IMO.

[Jaded]

All plants in the UK are invaders. Or certainly those up north, after the ice went.

[rogerzilla]

I watched a horror movie unfold in front of our house last year. Ash dieback, sure, but they went quite overboard. Hundreds of undeserving trees felled. It completely changed the character of the view we'd enjoyed for 20 years, ripping away the magical secret privacy.

Ashes aren't my favourite trees.  They're not in leaf for long, they look hideous in winter, and they seed themselves all over the country quicker than Boris Johnson.  But they're better than nothing.  Or leylandii.

[T42]

I watched a horror movie unfold in front of our house last year. Ash dieback, sure, but they went quite overboard. Hundreds of undeserving trees felled. It completely changed the character of the view we'd enjoyed for 20 years, ripping away the magical secret privacy.

Ashes aren't my favourite trees.  They're not in leaf for long, they look hideous in winter, and they seed themselves all over the country quicker than Boris Johnson.  But they're better than nothing.  Or leylandii.

That WRT our garden. Though we haven't yet had Boris inseminating the shrubbery.

"...the barky boles of trees" - John Barth, The Sotweed Factor.

[Quisling]

Reasonably on topic, can I recommend a read of "The Golden Spruce", trust story/investigation of another iconic tree that was felled before its time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiidk%27yaas

[sam]

I see the Golden Spruce killer was on the D.B. Cooper retirement plan.

Briefly back to the cul-de-sac of our private grief, this will serve to illustrate:



That's our new view to the southeast. Nearly intolerable at first, we've had no choice but to acclimate ourselves to prying eyes.

I spent most of my youth climbing trees. Never learned what names they went by, and I still depend on the kindness of strangers to ID them. 'Sycamore' has a nice ring to it.

[Tim Hall]

Re identifying trees: At Scout camp this year, I asked Small Boy what a particular tree was. He paused for a while then pronounced it to be an oak. Which it was. I asked him to show his working what brought him to that conclusion. "Well I knew it wasn't a birch."

[Kim]

IRTA "Well I knew it wasn't a larch.", which was much funnier.