A few days ago, I saw a tweet from Robert MacFarlane which was rather shocking: the iconic sycamore tree in the 'Sycamore Gap' along Hadrian's Wall had been deliberately felled the previous night by someone / a group of people with a chainsaw. A big one at that given the size of the tree...
Sick to the core to see this.
— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 28, 2023
A tree known & loved by millions.
Stories, memories, histories, lives, all entwined with it.
100s of years of patient growth, felled in a few minutes, the day the State of Nature report is published.
War waged on nature by individuals & government. https://t.co/F9Gq7hBkqo
I really cannot understand why this might have been done.
Others do have some theories, particularly if you look at the quality of the cut and the circumstances under which the act took place... see below
The tree was special to many people in many different ways. It sits in a dramatic location where the wall dips down after a steep cliffed section of the Whin Sill. The tree had stood there for around three hundred years.
One thing to note is that sycamore trees can regenerate with new growth from a stump.
Personally find it unlikely a 16 year- old would bother to do this in a storm for a prank, let alone mark a saw cut with white paint #SycamoreGap pic.twitter.com/M1rDdJjYYH
— Dr Jonathan Foyle (@JonathanFoyle) September 28, 2023
Update
A new piece from Robert.
I spoke about the need to understand the Sycamore Gap tree’s slaughter in context of the wider “hostile environment” towards the natural world in the UK.
— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 29, 2023
And also about how the best way to mourn the loss of this tree is to grow a forest. https://t.co/iLkq7CWbVP
It's possible that the story of the tree may form part of some sort of material for the draft specification - perhaps an image on the front cover, or as a reminder of the way that some trees and nature gain additional significance for people.
Updated October 12th
Preparations are underway to remove the tree at Sycamore Gap tomorrow. The 50-foot tree had stood for almost 200 years until it was felled in an act of vandalism two weeks ago - it will now be carefully moved by crane and taken to a property in our care, to be safely stored. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/zal78fEd3O
— National Trust in the North (@NT_TheNorth) October 11, 2023
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