A beautiful, 200-plus-year-old sycamore felled, apparently, by some young idjit:
Yes. Stupid bastard.
Perpetrator was reported to have said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.”
So, a liar as well. It was obviously done with a chainsaw.
“We must not allow a Sycamore Gap!”
A tree that large would be dangerous for an amateur to cut down. How it falls is unpredictable without ropes to pull it in a specific direction.
It’s very frustrating that a attraction that drew tourists was destroyed by one a-hole.
I’m not sure the laws allow for stiff punishment for tree cutting. But this teen needs some jail time for what he did.
“People… they’re the worst!” - Jerry Seinfeld
A little Gorilla Glue and some Duct Tape, good as new!
Obviously the authorities weren’t minding the gap.
Not condoning the act but that is pretty impressive for a 16 yro and a chainsaw.
I’ve cut small weed trees on my property. I leave big trees to a Tree Service.
What!? No JBWeld handy?
I’d go with JBWeld too. It has NEVER failed to stick whatever I wanted to stick together.
Then stick the kid to the bars of his cell, if he’s convicted.
As an amateur tree feller, I have to point out that from the pictures I’ve seen, the tree, although large, looks like it would be easy to take down in a controlled manner. It’s a very straight tree with a balanced crown. It’s the kind of tree I can notch and drop in a predicted direction.
Anyone else wanna just ask, “Why?”
Over and over.
Like, something was that messed up at home, or what?
The biggest problem with felling a large tree is hitting nearby buildings/structures or getting it hung up on nearby trees. In this case, where you don’t care where it falls, it simplifies the operation. Yes, you might 180 it or have it spin on the way down, but in this case who cares? Felling any big tree can be dangerous, but remove the surrounding obstacles makes the whole thing much less stressful.
Some people think it’s better to be famous for something stupid than to linger in obscurity. It’s called herostratic fame after Herostratus, the arsonist who destroyed the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. So far I haven’t seen the name of the tree-feller in any of the articles I read and I hope it stays that way.
It’s probably more because the suspect is a juvenile, but I agree in principle.
At least this vandal got caught, unlike whoever decided to take a chainsaw to the internet-famous Broccoli Tree.
ETA: That 4-minute vlogbrothers video linked at the top of the article is great.