So sad how an act of stupidity by as few as one person can eliminate something of beauty that's been around longer than tens, hundreds, thousands of their lifetimes.
> Kiidk'yaas (meaning "ancient tree" in the Haida language[1]), also known as the Golden Spruce, was a Sitka Spruce tree (Picea sitchensis 'Aurea') that grew on the banks of the Yakoun River on the Haida Gwaii archipelago, in British Columbia Canada. It had a rare genetic mutation that caused its needles to be golden in colour (rather than the usual green). Kiidk'yaas was considered sacred by the Haida people
> Kiidk'yaas was felled in January 1997 by Grant Hadwin as an act of protest against the logging industry.
Waiting for the day some space-bound joy-rider flies through the Rings of Saturn and leaves big gaping holes. How many years will it take the custodian moons to clean up?
> That year, a well was dug near the tree, offering a hint to how it had managed to survive in the sand. The tree, only around 10 feet tall, had roots that stretched down more than 100 feet to the water table.
Note that it's a willow tree, so the vandal and workers may have "just" unintentionally coppiced it. Far from killing the tree, some of the oldest trees in the world are coppiced. Coppicing is supposed to happen in winter, but it's possible this tree could survive.
Looking at the "before" picture, the tree might itself be a spray formed when an older tree was cut.
I am not sure that it is unintentional. The observers may just have not asked what was going on. The reason I'm unsure of intent is the height of the stumps. That's rather abnormal as trees are usually cut much closer to the ground.
Also, the tree could probably have been saved. It didn't look like a cut that would have destroyed the entire tree. A good arborist could have removed that without overly damaging the rest of the tree.
The stumps are all left at unusual angles. Those aren't the result of typical notching and felling techniques. Those were cut intentionally. My guess is they were notched above that and then cut down to that height.
Yeah, the partially severed limb needed to be fully cut off for the best interest of the tree. I'm guessing the work crew saw some rot or disease or other damage, and went ahead and coppiced the whole tree.
"Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse,"
I finally find out why the "copse of trees" at Gettysburg is called that. Thank you.
Can confirm. A couple of years ago the ornamental plum in my front yard died and I cut it off near the base. Almost immediately about a hundred new trunks sprouted from the stump and roots, and it was what I considered a handsome shrubbery for a year or so before my wife made me coppice the whole thing out of the ground with axe and pickup truck.
This is tangentially related to something I've been struggling with for the last year. I began getting into photography about a year and as an attempt to surround myself with inspiration, I followed many of the top landscape photographers on Instagram. While their images are beautiful and they tend to position their photographs from the perspective of "environmentalism", I can't help but feel like they've done as much damage as anything else.
Two examples come to mind. Last year, the USFS extended the lottery permit season in the Enchantments by six weeks due to increasing popularity, no doubt fueled by the incredible pictures of it littered across Instagram. Iceland is a top destination for photographers (for good reason) and I traveled there two months ago, no doubt influenced by the pictures I've seen. But it felt like the country was beginning to get ruined by me and my fellow tourists.
It feels like we're beginning to lose the hidden gems as more and more photographers rush to be the first. But even the non-hidden gems are beginning to get exposed more and more often. But I see the same spots being visited by all photographers and I don't see how they'll handle the continued influx of people:
It's great that people are interested in seeing the world, but I'd say the set of people that love photographing amazing locations and preserving them is much smaller than the set of people that only care about the former. That said, I'm probably more of a contributor to this than I'd care to admit.
The key, as a photographer, is then to find the beauty elsewhere, preferably in the everyday.
I maintain an active mountain images account, but when I post from somewhere untouched, I'm deliberately vague as to the location.
I'm watching the same thing happen with a tarn on Mt. Rainier. People are figuring out its location, and soon it will be highly trafficked. Most of these places look untouched precisely because people have gone to some trouble not to touch them.
Some overuse is a worthy trade, if, when at the ballot box and the cash register, nature-aware humans make the deliberate choice to sacrifice in order to preserve that which remains.
I've had this exact discussion with my friends a several times recently. We regularly go hiking and backpacking in the mountains of upstate NY and New England, and have independently noticed the trend of people 'peak bagging' instagram hotspots over the past couple of years.
It's tough because I'm a big fan of getting people outside, and this renewed interest in visiting national parks could in theory drive more funding and interest in wildlands preservation, but in the meantime has drawn hordes of people who don't always respect the place they're visiting.
There are microcosms of the instagram top spots phenomenon you've listed all over the place as well. This past summer I went to visit a backcountry waterfall in my hometown where locals used to cool off, and could not believe how many people there were there, some clearly from far away, taking pictures of themselves in front of it. The instagram location tag for it has thousands of posts, for a place that is pretty but not really spectacular.
If you really like something, tell nobody. If you find beautiful waterfalls, don't tell anyone. A great fishing hole? Keep it to yourself. A great diner? Nary a soul should you tell.
I'm only slightly exaggerating.
In defiance of my above statement, I own this tree and it is my favorite tree. The forestry service cored it and it's at least 220 years old.
I believe there's a counteracting mechanism at work that compensates (and then some) for the possible damages from tourism.
Look at Yellowstone, or the country of Guatemala, where it's the interest by visitors that provides the necessary incentives to protect the natural beauty.
The same has (somewhat) worked to reduce the risk of extinction for many species of African mammals as well.
I began getting into photography as well, around the first of the year, and the trick to me seems to be finding what's amazing in the places where you are every day. I mean, if I had the spare time to travel to places where the landscape is already amazing, I suspect I would, too. But I think it might feel like easy mode to me, if I did.
So many things about that are depressing, like, why would someone cut into a tree like that, and why would they decide that, if one of the trunks is gone, the whole thing needs to be decimated? Both are completely absurd.
There is an Arabic story about Hatim al-Tai’s brother. Hatim al-Tai was a great man, maybe the most generous person that has ever lived. He was a legend even when he was alive.
One day people saw his brother peeing in the holy Well of Zamzam. This is the most sacred water in Islam. They asked him why he was doing such a thing. “My brother is famous and will be remembered forever in the history,” he said. “I can never be as wise or as generous as him, so this is how I make sure I will be remembered forever.”
See the picture of the cut limb? (https://kottke.org/plus/misc/images/broccoli-tree-vandal-01....) How it looks like there's a vertical crack in the limb, and kind of black in the middle? And if you look real close at the vertical cut, it looks black inside. Other parts of the tree seem to have large black spots too.
Well limbs don't just crack vertically when they're cut horizontally. Either someone hacked at it vertically (no real reason), or that black spot is the mark of black canker, a willow disease. The only fix is to cut off the diseased limb in the dormant season. And it's almost the dormant season.
Why did all the limbs get cut off? Dunno, maybe it had to do with canker too. But remember, plants are not here for humans' amusement - they often require trimming, chopping, replanting, large culls to prevent disease spread, and all kinds of other treatment to care for them. The end result may be an ugly tree, but a tree that lives.
I could be wrong. But it's best not to dwell on the worst of things if you don't know what really happened.
since this entire topic seems philosophical, I'll go down this path --
someone is sitting at home, feeling worthless, like their life is pointless and they could disappear without anyone noticing.
but there's this tree everyone likes. people notice this tree. because you see lots of pictures of it, people must visit it often. it's a confluence.
if you were to, say, scratch your name into the bark, people would notice. you would have made some difference on the world, for better or worse.
if you were to cut a branch down, people would DEFINITELY notice. people would think about you, when no one would before. even if the thoughts aren't positive.
in other words, to not feel so small and meaningless.
It's hardly clear from this particular blog post but if you look at what's been reported in newspapers almost all the trunks had been sawed in.
As for why, who knows, but my guess is we're looking at a physical world manifestation of the same personality that drives many (non-professional) internet trolls. Sadistic and attention seeking.
I get it, a tree that has had a limb artificially removed is ugly - in my eyes at least. Even trees that are managed can look rough around the edges, whereas the natural shape of trees can be absolutely beautiful. I've tried to tame some large trees that I am stewarding, and to be honest they'd probably look better cut right back to the ground. Thin limb cuts you can get away with, but a severed fat limb looks pretty dreadful.
Last year, in Death Valley National Park, in a place called the Racetrack Playa (home to the moving rocks), some excrement-brained jackasses, drove their vehicle onto the playa while it was wet from a recent storm. The tire tracks they left will be visible now for possibly centuries ruining for visitors what was a pristine environment. Staking their naked, honey-coated bodies on top of an army ant anthole might not be enough punishment.
My most favorite hobby is taking long-distance off-road trips in my old Land Rover Defender with my buddies. We go to places far off the beaten path, taking the smallest and least-used doubletrack trails that we can find. I've written [1][2] about these on some of the popular forums for this stuff and post a lot of photos. People often ask for GPS coordinates of the great campsites that we discover but I never, ever give them out and I'm purposefully vague and sometimes deceptive about their actual location.
This story is why.
Like the saying goes, call something paradise and kiss it goodbye. I blame the people who publicize these places as much as I blame the people who fuck them up. The assholes of the world cannot be trusted with beauty. They will always defile it or love it to death.
The thesis of the article seems to be summed up in the last paragraph:
> our collective attention and obsession, amplified by the speed and intensity of the internet & social media, tends to ruin the things we love: authors, musicians, restaurants, actors, beloved movies, vacation spots, artists, democracies and even a tree that became too famous to live.
I think this is an important point. Yes public attention and mass media existed before the internet but we all know that modern social media has changed the way notoriety and reputation work. I agree with the author because I think that, for example, in the world we had during the 80's or early 90's Justine Sacco would still have a job and the US Presidential campaign would have been different.
This is an apt metaphor over how, when hegemonic, the cultural forces of Globalism cut away the branches of local culture, leaving a stump representing what the local culture once was.
Of course, if this were an act of coppicing, it's a renewal of sorts, and the tree will once again grow, more robust than ever, as the Phoenix rises from it's ashes.
Does anyone look at this from an economic standpoint? I think this is just an (unfair) form of taxation for being famous. Someone or something became too famous. People want a "cut" of the fame (in this case, it was literally the cut, ha ha). It's interesting to think how we can redistribute this type of "wealth" among people. I can think of Twitter replies or blog trackbacks as a primitive way to achieve it, but what can the society/government do?
[+] [-] cableshaft|8 years ago|reply
Joshua Tree on U2 album cover destroyed: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2971368/U2-fan-pilgr...
Kids knock down 16 million year old rock formation: https://military.id.me/news/idiots-ruin-18-million-year-old-...
One man accidentally killed the oldest tree ever: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-one-man-accide...
World's most isolated tree knocked down by drunk driver: https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/earths-most-isol...
So sad how an act of stupidity by as few as one person can eliminate something of beauty that's been around longer than tens, hundreds, thousands of their lifetimes.
[+] [-] elihu|8 years ago|reply
> Kiidk'yaas (meaning "ancient tree" in the Haida language[1]), also known as the Golden Spruce, was a Sitka Spruce tree (Picea sitchensis 'Aurea') that grew on the banks of the Yakoun River on the Haida Gwaii archipelago, in British Columbia Canada. It had a rare genetic mutation that caused its needles to be golden in colour (rather than the usual green). Kiidk'yaas was considered sacred by the Haida people
> Kiidk'yaas was felled in January 1997 by Grant Hadwin as an act of protest against the logging industry.
[+] [-] clarkenheim|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seunosewa|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wavefunction|8 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_(tree)
[+] [-] stephengillie|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phlakaton|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foxhop|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apatters|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] breischl|8 years ago|reply
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/goblin-valley-boy-...
[+] [-] Reason077|8 years ago|reply
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=that+wanaka+tree&tbm=isch
[+] [-] dmix|8 years ago|reply
Amazing.
[+] [-] schiffern|8 years ago|reply
Looking at the "before" picture, the tree might itself be a spray formed when an older tree was cut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing
[+] [-] KGIII|8 years ago|reply
Also, the tree could probably have been saved. It didn't look like a cut that would have destroyed the entire tree. A good arborist could have removed that without overly damaging the rest of the tree.
The stumps are all left at unusual angles. Those aren't the result of typical notching and felling techniques. Those were cut intentionally. My guess is they were notched above that and then cut down to that height.
It may be intentional coppicing?
[+] [-] ckinnan|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tptacek|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peterwwillis|8 years ago|reply
I finally find out why the "copse of trees" at Gettysburg is called that. Thank you.
[+] [-] 13of40|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhoechtl|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jplahn|8 years ago|reply
Two examples come to mind. Last year, the USFS extended the lottery permit season in the Enchantments by six weeks due to increasing popularity, no doubt fueled by the incredible pictures of it littered across Instagram. Iceland is a top destination for photographers (for good reason) and I traveled there two months ago, no doubt influenced by the pictures I've seen. But it felt like the country was beginning to get ruined by me and my fellow tourists.
It feels like we're beginning to lose the hidden gems as more and more photographers rush to be the first. But even the non-hidden gems are beginning to get exposed more and more often. But I see the same spots being visited by all photographers and I don't see how they'll handle the continued influx of people:
It's great that people are interested in seeing the world, but I'd say the set of people that love photographing amazing locations and preserving them is much smaller than the set of people that only care about the former. That said, I'm probably more of a contributor to this than I'd care to admit.[+] [-] ISL|8 years ago|reply
I maintain an active mountain images account, but when I post from somewhere untouched, I'm deliberately vague as to the location.
I'm watching the same thing happen with a tarn on Mt. Rainier. People are figuring out its location, and soon it will be highly trafficked. Most of these places look untouched precisely because people have gone to some trouble not to touch them.
Some overuse is a worthy trade, if, when at the ballot box and the cash register, nature-aware humans make the deliberate choice to sacrifice in order to preserve that which remains.
[+] [-] macNchz|8 years ago|reply
It's tough because I'm a big fan of getting people outside, and this renewed interest in visiting national parks could in theory drive more funding and interest in wildlands preservation, but in the meantime has drawn hordes of people who don't always respect the place they're visiting.
There are microcosms of the instagram top spots phenomenon you've listed all over the place as well. This past summer I went to visit a backcountry waterfall in my hometown where locals used to cool off, and could not believe how many people there were there, some clearly from far away, taking pictures of themselves in front of it. The instagram location tag for it has thousands of posts, for a place that is pretty but not really spectacular.
Here's a story about a similar location that blew up on the internet and suffered for it: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/nyregion/blue-hole-swimmi...
[+] [-] KGIII|8 years ago|reply
I'm only slightly exaggerating.
In defiance of my above statement, I own this tree and it is my favorite tree. The forestry service cored it and it's at least 220 years old.
https://imgur.com/a/c2AVd
[+] [-] matt4077|8 years ago|reply
Look at Yellowstone, or the country of Guatemala, where it's the interest by visitors that provides the necessary incentives to protect the natural beauty.
The same has (somewhat) worked to reduce the risk of extinction for many species of African mammals as well.
[+] [-] throwanem|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ierolastic|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mostafah|8 years ago|reply
One day people saw his brother peeing in the holy Well of Zamzam. This is the most sacred water in Islam. They asked him why he was doing such a thing. “My brother is famous and will be remembered forever in the history,” he said. “I can never be as wise or as generous as him, so this is how I make sure I will be remembered forever.”
[+] [-] peterwwillis|8 years ago|reply
Well limbs don't just crack vertically when they're cut horizontally. Either someone hacked at it vertically (no real reason), or that black spot is the mark of black canker, a willow disease. The only fix is to cut off the diseased limb in the dormant season. And it's almost the dormant season.
Why did all the limbs get cut off? Dunno, maybe it had to do with canker too. But remember, plants are not here for humans' amusement - they often require trimming, chopping, replanting, large culls to prevent disease spread, and all kinds of other treatment to care for them. The end result may be an ugly tree, but a tree that lives.
I could be wrong. But it's best not to dwell on the worst of things if you don't know what really happened.
[+] [-] 2bitencryption|8 years ago|reply
someone is sitting at home, feeling worthless, like their life is pointless and they could disappear without anyone noticing.
but there's this tree everyone likes. people notice this tree. because you see lots of pictures of it, people must visit it often. it's a confluence.
if you were to, say, scratch your name into the bark, people would notice. you would have made some difference on the world, for better or worse.
if you were to cut a branch down, people would DEFINITELY notice. people would think about you, when no one would before. even if the thoughts aren't positive.
in other words, to not feel so small and meaningless.
[+] [-] etiam|8 years ago|reply
As for why, who knows, but my guess is we're looking at a physical world manifestation of the same personality that drives many (non-professional) internet trolls. Sadistic and attention seeking.
[+] [-] keypress|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] nolok|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoblessWonder|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sizzzzlerz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrissnell|8 years ago|reply
This story is why.
Like the saying goes, call something paradise and kiss it goodbye. I blame the people who publicize these places as much as I blame the people who fuck them up. The assholes of the world cannot be trusted with beauty. They will always defile it or love it to death.
[1] http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/146545-The-Owyhee [2] http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/112686-Northwest-b...
[+] [-] sevensor|8 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_Oak_(Austin,_Texas)
[+] [-] mastazi|8 years ago|reply
> our collective attention and obsession, amplified by the speed and intensity of the internet & social media, tends to ruin the things we love: authors, musicians, restaurants, actors, beloved movies, vacation spots, artists, democracies and even a tree that became too famous to live.
I think this is an important point. Yes public attention and mass media existed before the internet but we all know that modern social media has changed the way notoriety and reputation work. I agree with the author because I think that, for example, in the world we had during the 80's or early 90's Justine Sacco would still have a job and the US Presidential campaign would have been different.
[+] [-] campground|8 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiidk%27yaas
https://thetyee.ca/Life/2005/08/03/GoldenSpruce/
[+] [-] briantakita|8 years ago|reply
Of course, if this were an act of coppicing, it's a renewal of sorts, and the tree will once again grow, more robust than ever, as the Phoenix rises from it's ashes.
[+] [-] nvusuvu|8 years ago|reply
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/11/harvey_updyke_poiso...
[+] [-] totally|8 years ago|reply
Nothing lasts forever, folks. It's all going to be over before you know it.
[+] [-] euske|8 years ago|reply
edit: economical -> economic
[+] [-] geoffreyhale|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drawkbox|8 years ago|reply
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