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.
Insane question, could the tree be saved by splicing it back into the trunk? Like you can do with small trees?
Maybe replacing it from a cutting would be easier?
Maybe easier, but much more time consuming (300 years give or take)
I am guessing that the most cost-effective option is just replacing the tree, which is probably what they will most likely do. But I hope they take another tack and find a way to restore it.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s an easy proposition - or perhaps even possible - to do with a fuck-off huge 300-year-old tree.
