Sycamore Gap has been in a lot of peoples’ thoughts since the famous 300-year-old tree there was chopped down illegally.
Sycamore Gap
A 16 year old boy has since been arrested.
Supt Kevin Waring of Northumbria police said yesterday: “This is a world-renowned landmark and the events of today have caused significant shock, sadness and anger throughout the local community and beyond.
“An investigation was immediately launched following this vandalism, and this afternoon we have arrested one suspect in connection with our inquiries.
“Given our investigation remains at a very early stage, we are keeping an open mind. I am appealing to the public for information to assist us – if you have seen or heard anything suspicious that may be of interest to us, please let us know.”
Poet
Robert Macfarlane told the BBC that said the sight of the downed 300-year-old tree made him and many others feel sick. “I just see this as part of a piece with a much broader hostile environment towards the living world in this country.”
He added: “It was a film star – it starred in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was a tree that ashes were scattered under, marriages were made under, and it was a shelter for tired walkers. It stood in that gap in the wall, and it survived the winds that howl through that notch. It stood in a wall that was a symbol of repression really, but it flourished there. It was a landmark in the region.”
Maybe a positive?
He then said: “What a response it has called out: grief, poems, paintings, drawings, photographs, stories, memories. How do we use that feeling, that strength of that feeling and turn it to the good?”
“The best way to remember the loss of the tree, I would say, is with the gain of the forest. We are drastically deforested, we have the second lowest forest cover in Europe. Let us reforest the uplands. Let us see a Sycamore Gap forest rise for the loss of a tree.”
Other reactions
‘The tree. Our tree’.
Those who cut down the Sycamore Gap tree,
Have committed an act of great cruelty.
They have shown no regard for nature’s grace,
And left a scar upon this sacred place.
Let those who cut down the sycamore tree,
Beware the wrath of nature, wild and free.
For their evil deed will not be forgotten.
Related: Sycamore Gap – Fury as tree featured in Kevin Costner epic chopped down
