Originally published at: Famed Sycamore Gap tree in England felled in "malicious act of vandalism" | Boing Boing
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I don’t know about it being a tenant who hates instagrammers…
The spot is part of an incredibly popular walking route along Hadrian’s wall. It’s not unusual for there to be hundreds of people in a half mile radius of the spot on a busy day. People go for the walk more so than the tree so not likely.
I will say that there are a number of touristy buildings, i.e. a pub and nature centre which will have CCTV of all the local car parks. So if someone is brazen and stupid enough to cut down the tree, they’re also likely brazen and stupid enough to get caught after the fact.
Such a real shame. My heart sank when I found out.
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“We have reason to believe it has been deliberately felled.”
yes, the pictures do not lie. it was. sad, and so so stupid.
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Wow. This is up there with idiot tourists pushing over ancient rock formations in the US.
What a waste.
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When I first heard I thought it must have come down in last night’s storm, but seeing the pictures it’s clear it was someone with a chain saw. So sad - it’s an iconic part of this area
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I have some sympathy with people who are afflicted by Instagrammers. A neighbor who maintains a wooden dock in a picturesque spot recently put up a padlocked gate to discourage the hordes who want to take selfies there, largely because if the somewhat rickety structure collapses under some boisterous trespasser, she’ll be liable.
But chainsawing a tree in a national park is straight-up vandalism. And a particularly mean-spirited kind. “Ha ha, people like this thing, so I’ll wreck it for everyone forever.”
They may catch the person responsible, but I doubt the penalties available will adequately reflect the sheer maliciousness of the crime.
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“What did you do down here? Did you take the top off of the tree?”
“It was an accident.”
“You accidentally, expertly, carefully took the entire top off of that tree?”
“Yes.”
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I thought once of having a website enshrining the infamy of people, like Dan Snyder, who killed ancient trees for no good reason. Then I realized infamy is almost as good as fame to some people, and they’d chop down trees just so they could be listed. I love trees, and a lot of people, but some people are troublesome.
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Even further shenanigans…
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I spent some time looking up the Bryan Adams song because my brain just couldn’t let that part of the story go. Apparently there was a rights issue causing Adams to remove the Robin Hood version and replace it with concert footage. If you have an old VHS copy of Prince of Thieves, you can see him playing by the tree. If you watch the movie right now on Netflix, the scene is cut.
Music, images, and rights - name a more famous combo that normal people couldn’t care less about until we see & hear something that we know is different. Looking at you, Quantum Leap DVD release.
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That song was number 1 in the singles chart for the entirety of Desert Storm. Some would call that karma.
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I’d make 'em serve time by the stump during the day, in a pillory or stocks fashioned from the branches, next to an exhibit about how much joy the tree brought to others (as well as any significant times that the tree survived) until the day it was killed by the individual/s under the placard …
… but this tendency to go medieval is probably why friends say I’m too harsh to be a judge. 
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Funny, not how I pictured you.
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That’s just publicly shaming and embarrassing them, so nowhere near the hideous medieval practices you could draw from.
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And yet nobody could sing it. It’s like it was erased from our collective memory with an agreement to never speak of it again.
Which you broke.
Or maybe it was such bland mush, like baby food for the pop charts, that it left no lasting impression.
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