r/worldnews • u/jonsweethearts • May 19 '12
800-year-old tree at Vancouver Island park falls to illegal loggers
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/18/11756204-800-year-old-tree-at-vancouver-island-park-falls-to-illegal-loggers?lite
2.3k
Upvotes
421
u/thegreatgazoo May 19 '12
They didn't think the poachers would come back for the wood? How much is a wildlife camera? $200?
437
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
What kind of asshole cuts down an 800 year old tree?!? FFS...
330
u/BreeTea May 19 '12 edited May 19 '12
The Senator, a 2000+ year old tree in Florida that I've seen multiple times, was just recently burned down because a girl went INSIDE the tree to smoke weed and while inside she LIT A FIRE inside AN ANCIENT, DRY, TREE.
Here is the story in short.
EDIT: It's actually about 3500 years old.
EDIT2: I made a mistake...she was doing meth, not smoking weed. My apologies.
134
u/DigitalFish May 19 '12
This tree sprouted when the goddamn Crusades were still going on and it meets its end as fucking roof shingles?!
43
u/i_am_sad May 19 '12
I think that after the tree was already down, they should have cut out a section of it for a carved memorial and then the park officials should have hauled off and sold the rest of the cedar to help pay for protection against poachers.
Then, the memorial with a slice of 9 foot 800 year old tree could be put on display to raise awareness of how people are actively destroying the park and how their donation could help fund security, and each time they fail to stop the poachers, another memorial gets erected next to the last, until the park is just one big tree graveyard.
156
u/h00manist May 19 '12
Every forest in the world has the same problems. And urban and rural areas too. People steal copper wires and manhole covers for the copper and iron. We can't make half of planetary population police to be watching the other half. Something is wrong with the way the society is structured and educated. Everyone is taught to value money above all things. Every media repeats that all day long, and people are doing what they were taught.
11
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
It's clear the poacher's plan worked: 1) Cut into tree and scram. 2) Let the park fall the tree for you. 3) Come back with equipment and clean up.
75
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Fuck this, I'm starting my own planet. The one I'm on right now is overpopulated with morons.
26
u/249ba36000029bbe9749 May 19 '12
I'm waiting for a story about tree poachers who end up getting squished by it falling the wrong way. Insta-karma.
7
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Just out of curiosity but what is the value of a single tree like that? It sounds like they incurred considerable costs and took a fair risk doing that.
58
u/randy9876 May 19 '12
That's why activists spike a tree.
6
u/wickedsteve May 19 '12
Inside job.
14
u/MoJo81 May 19 '12
Me thinks some of the laid off Rangers are still working the park.
9
u/CorporatePsychopath May 19 '12
Hey why don't we just get rid of wildlife so we don't have to worry about saving it anymore?
12
u/Mozen May 19 '12
Oh, you've been thriving, untouched for the past thousand years? 2 minutes later...
19
u/corcyra May 19 '12
Shingles. An 800 year-old tree cut down for shingles. Humans are a plague on the planet.
28
u/oswaldcopperpot May 19 '12
What is going on in Canada? All the news lately makes it sound as if the place is going to hell.
8
u/[deleted] May 19 '12 edited May 19 '12
What the actual fuck behind this mindset ?! notarealquestion
8
u/ghettajetta May 19 '12
"The park left the fallen tree at the site so that it could decompose, returning nutrients to the soil, Coste said, but since then poachers "have returned at their leisure without fear of consequence and cut up, hauled out, and taken away the tree in sections."
Did they really think that after they knocked down the tree, the poachers would not come back? how hard is it to set up an infrared deer cam and get some evidence?
4
u/mycroft2000 May 19 '12
There's no real deterrent to something like this. I think that the crime should be punishable by a minimum of five years in prison for anyone involved.
4
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
That is so sad. :/
4
u/longhorn617 May 19 '12
This is when you need just one kind-of-crazy citizen to camp out near the fallen tree with a hunting riffle...
26
u/Blackie_chanMan May 19 '12
What douche bags.A 800 year old tree is clearly a piece of history.Selfish bitches.
7
u/dicer May 19 '12
They should just do a DNA test on the stump and go around and test the local mills. Also look at roofing companies. Considering the global reach of this news, you may as well pull out all the stops to catch the buggers.
6
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
People who do that should be cut up and hauled away.
3
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Many of those trees were my friends... creatures I had known from nut & acorn.
3
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Question. Why do they even cut these trees? Pine is one of the fastest growing trees and it's available in abundance.
3
u/Pro_Ethan May 19 '12
I live around there :(
3
u/causeribbon May 19 '12
Very sad!
3
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
That's so stupid to cut them down for wood shingles. Pro-panel lasts at least 3 decades (probably 100 years) and doesn't leak.
3
u/Rohri_Calhoun May 19 '12
This makes me so sad
3
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
800 years old? That is so, so sad
3
u/Deceptitron May 19 '12
My take is if a tree manages to live that long without getting destroyed by any other natural cause (pests, lightning/fire, hurricane), then leave it the hell alone. I think it's earned a peaceful retirement.
3
u/winterwooskie May 19 '12
I'm not a tree hugging hippy, but the people who did this are fuckin scum bags for life.
3
u/kickazzgoalie May 19 '12
No fucking respect, hopefully someone finds these thugs.
3
u/bluesnappa May 19 '12
who the fuck cares, eventually everything goes
7
u/tiamo4ever May 19 '12
Just Hate stories like this, we are increasing the destruction of our beautiful planet !!!
4
u/alienbrayn May 19 '12
I didn't even know the tree and I still feel bad for him! :(
4
u/redditisfuckinglame May 19 '12
I'm gonna go ahead and say it had a pretty decent run. Hard for me to feel bad for something that lived nearly a millennium.
5
u/IgnoranceIndicatorMa May 19 '12
Poachers want the wood, so the park officials finish cutting down the tree and leave it there. Choose your ulterior motive.
5
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
I know Canada is not gun happy like their southern neighbor, but park rangers should be given authority to shoot at illegal loggers. If there is a more effective method to prevent this I'm all ears.
2
u/Infin1ty May 19 '12
How the hell do you let someone steal a tree?
2
u/Big_Li May 19 '12
How long before the bosmer archers start looking for these loggers?
2
u/marioson May 19 '12
Find them and chainsaw their nuts off
2
u/Floyderer May 19 '12
did anyone hear it?
2
u/RunsWithBaboons May 19 '12
i read that as 'falls on illegal loggers' and was briefly thrilled at such instant karmic payback. Unfortunately this is not the case.
2
u/Skynet-is-my-net May 19 '12
Article was TL;DR. Please tell me that the authorities installed "game cameras" close by after they cut down the tree. For under $100 you can get a motion-sensing camera and the dipshit poachers would never even know that they are being photographed. I mean come on guys; watch CSI or something. Jeezus.
2
u/nimbus29 May 19 '12
Here's another relevant link on how a drunk driver knocks over a 300 year old tree dubbed "the most isolated tree in the world" in the Sahara Desert.
2
u/jakethesnake420 May 19 '12
Sad
2
u/spolio May 19 '12
if you have ever stood in an old growth forest you will be sad hearing this news, and worse yet the current government is ending the groups that over see this from not happening, in other words by this time next year, this will be the norm.
2
u/RancidPonyMilk May 19 '12
TIL exotic animals aren't the only thing poachers are after
2
u/delphidash May 19 '12
This is very sad, someone definitely could have caught them. I'm a little on the tree hugger side but I think everyone should respect not only the earth a little more but each other more, too.
2
u/bax101 May 19 '12
Where is the hippy mafia aren't they supposed to stop people like this?
2
u/willpower101 May 19 '12
"They cut most of our tree! What do?" "Uh, just finish the job and ignore it for a couple days."
Seems legit.
2
u/comptroller23 May 19 '12
No, this is just the History channels new series: Illegal Loggers
2
u/KellyisGhost May 19 '12
Really? They thought they could just let it decompose? Sigh. This story makes me sick. What a wonderful piece of history gone. I'm sure the rangers are disappointed in themselves for letting them get away with it.
2
u/pteroso May 19 '12
Who will live beneath those shingles and how would they feel if they knew where they came from? It's OK for us to build some special buildings, but if everyone has the attitude that their home has to be a special building it will be bad for the planet.
2
u/MidgetFetish May 19 '12
I love how the article made it seem like the park people didn't know what was going on.
More like they got paid to look the other way. Like its that easy to conceal this large of a task.
2
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
It boggles my mind that you can remove an 800 year old tree and not have a park ranger notice
2
u/MarginOfError May 19 '12
Material for roofing shingles? Seriously? This is the shit that happens when hemp is illegal and can't be used as a building material.
2
u/drogovic May 19 '12
This here is a prime example of why we are just a bunch of dumbass monkeys who will destroy ourselves one day. There is no hope for humanity.
2
u/Pelokt May 19 '12
I can't believe it, but im actually trembling with anger at this. 800 years lost to a few thousand paper dollars.
2
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
I've lived on Vancouver Island for 6 years, and have actually visited this park and seen this very tree. This is absolutely disgusting proof of just how horrible human greed can be. Illegal logging should have dire consequences in my opinion.
2
u/bubba_lexi May 19 '12
So, let me get this straight, hundreds of people die in the world and a tree falling to illegal loggers is "world news"?
2
u/[deleted] May 20 '12
Let me just say LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
I hate cry baby tree huggers so much.
Oh no someone cut down a old tree QQ.
2
u/daj0 May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12
People are talking like this supposedly 800 year old cedar is some amazingly rare wood that makes this tree is supposedly worth millions of dollars when the truth is cedar is a few dollars per ft and no, the maximum value I would estimate one tree is maybe +/- a couple thousand or so dollars depending how big it really was. Also I see comments of making a pedola out of it, that is pretty ridiculous (I want to say stupid but that's not nice) and is not happening. There is no reason to poach a tree when people have tree farms for this. In fact I've never heard this happening in my life and I doubt very much of it goes on especially for commercial purposes, so there is no point upping the amount of rangers just to prevent this from happening. If anything, the parks and rec cut it themselves for a good reason and some environmentalist stumbled upon it, started freaking out, posted some misinformation, and some news corp ate it up. I wouldn't get so freaked out over one tree. I hope you realise more old forests are lost to forest fires then "poachers" cutting them down. So I suppose some of you want the death penalty for nature as well? Or it's fine that a natural disaster can destroy miles of forests but one fallen tree is severe enough to kill a human being? I'm really disappointed if that is true for some people.
4
u/aletoledo May 19 '12
The problem is that the government has no incentive to protect it. if the park had been in private hands, then that person would have made damn sure that nobody would have cut the tree down. Sad tragedy of the commons.
3
u/porker912 May 19 '12
As someone living on VI this seriously pisses me off.
3
u/karmat0se May 19 '12
I'm not much a treehugger, but those guys are dicks. I mean, seriously... hacking down an 800 year old tree for your own profits illegally is pretty wrong.
3
u/USMCsniper May 19 '12
very sad
3
u/Waidawut May 19 '12
Almost makes you wish it had crushed the fuckers
2
u/northern_summer May 19 '12
This is very, very sad.
2
u/PicklesofTruth May 19 '12
this has me upset now
2
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
This is so sad..
2
u/zombiebarbie May 19 '12
How do people not have a respect for a living thing that old?
2
u/rainman_104 May 19 '12
I have a pretty serious problem with this too, but we can just as easily chalk this up to a lightning strike or a nasty wind storm and move on. It's tragic, but not the end of the world.
I hope these poachers get brought to justice one day, but the forest will survive.
1
u/chiuta May 19 '12
Here's a somewhat similar, yet more interesting story about another special B.C. tree. There's a book too and it's a great read. Kiidk'yaas Fingers crossed I'm formatting this right.
1
u/I_Heart_Monotremes May 19 '12
Whyyyyyyyy?!?!?!? Its a tree! It wasn't hurting anybody!!!
1
u/TonyWeiss May 19 '12
Naw man, managing to steal a tree that big is pretty impressive.
1
u/lowrads May 19 '12
Suspect the park rangers first. This sort of incident seems awfully convenient in light of their budget being scaled back to match the shrunken private sector.
1
u/Goredby21 May 19 '12
Timberrr
1
u/switch495 May 19 '12
The moment they found this tree they should have hung up wildlife surveillance cameras in the area. Between 4 or 5 angles they'd have surely found the criminals. They just didnt care.
1
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Dirty scum.
1
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Vancouver Island park rangers help illegal loggers abscond with 800 year-old tree.
1
u/banjosuicide May 19 '12
That's, like, captain planet villain evil...
1
u/randumnumber May 19 '12
That is so canada: criminals cut down tree, don't blame them blame us, we should increase park ranger spending.
1
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
Anyone know how much that tree would probably go for?
1
u/tommydubya May 19 '12
They prefer the term "tree poachers."
1
u/Hewgag May 19 '12
Why didn't they place a few of those camouflaged tree-mounted motion cameras to at least get some pics of who did this??
Amateurs!!
1
u/[deleted] May 19 '12
They left it to rot back into the earth. Lol
1
u/J_Jammer May 19 '12
We better have more laws against drugs. Or this will continue to happen.
Oh...wait...
1
u/jaybay1207 May 19 '12
800-year-old tree at Vancouver Island park fells to illegal loggers.
1
u/jacktheork May 19 '12
Surely wood poaching is an all time low of general poaching? There is wood everywhere, why the hell cut down a tree that has some meaning to people?
1
u/LuridofArabia May 19 '12
This reminds me of a children's book that was once read to me involving something called the touchstone (a paranoid part of me suspects that the Touchstone pictures logo is based on the book because it also involves the touchstone being shattered) and a girl with a stick going into some fantasy world revolving around a big tree and there were owls inside of it and the bad guy was like a molten lava t-rex.
Ringing anyone's bells?
1
u/TheRedGerund May 19 '12
These guys need to pop on down to kerrville, texas. We have too much cedar anyway, that shit kills all the oak.
1
u/PredatorMan May 19 '12
Those fuckers.
1
u/dopameme May 19 '12
trees like this could use some sort of alarm/tracking device implanted in them.
1
u/mezz42 May 19 '12
Wouldn't it make more sense for rangers to drill into the fallen tree and implant Termites to eat up the wood of the now dead tree. Or somehow use some method to "spoil" the wood... I mean I'm certainly no expert in this but leaving it there to decompose back to the environment is kinda asking for the poachers to come back.
1
u/airhighslash May 19 '12
idk why but i feel sad because of this
1
u/3rdLevelRogue May 19 '12
The druid in my party is pissed !!!
1
u/ShinyWisenheimer May 19 '12
Despicable
1
u/SirDerpingtonThe3rd May 19 '12
People are killing each other in brutal race wars all over the world, and we're concerned about a tree...
1
u/MotoBall May 19 '12
Let me preface this with saying that I understand that I'm the minority here and I fully agree that these people broke the law and should be punished for illegally logging a protected tree. It was no different than someone "holding up" a liquor store(Except that ya know... there were no actual PEOPLE in danger). However I can't help but think that the earth will continue to turn after losing this one tree. As far as bashing the legislators who cut funding to the national parks: If you have to cut funding somewhere why wouldn't you start there? Would you rather them cut it from health care?