Police in north of England say teenager arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage in connection with the felling of the 300-year-old Sycamore Gap tree in the north of England.

Officers arrested the teenager amid an outpouring of sadness over the destruction of the landmark, which has been a feature of the site at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for hundreds of years. The boy is in custody and assisting officers with their inquiries, Northumbria police said on Thursday.

Locals and national park authorities said they were “struggling to see the logic” in the destruction of a sycamore which had long become “part of this area’s DNA” and had gone through thousands of changes of seasons.

The tree, believed to have been about 300 years old, was made famous when it appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.

  • Psythik@lemm.eeEnglish
    42·
    9 months ago

    Can anything be done? I’m not botanist, but is it not possible to graft the tree back onto its stump? Or maybe use that “rooting gel” stuff I’ve heard about to make the tree grow a new root system? I know that it’s possible to clone plants by taking a branch off and replanting it; can’t at least one of these things be done? Are they just going to give up that easily?

    • SomeoneElse@lemmy.caEnglish
      17·
      9 months ago

      Not a botanist, but my house is a jungle of tropical plants and I’m pretty experienced at propagating plants. Sycamores can be propagated, but not easily and not from the stump. You need soft wood cuttings from the top of the tree and those cuttings need to be taken in spring. Even in the best case scenario, it’s still really hit and miss.

      You can propagate plants at this time of year via air layering, but it’s pretty complicated and again the success rate is poor. Most importantly, air layering needs a living tree to work. This tree is essentially dead.

      The only thing they might be able to do is get a small young branch to root and plant it back in the same spot. It would technically still be the same tree but it would be a tiny little branch.

    • DrDickHandler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      220·
      9 months ago

      If you don’t know what you’re talking about, just don’t comment. You can’t fucking give up if there isn’t any solutions.