Poisoned Trees: What One Fool Can Do

nismaratwork

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/17/...ex.html?hpt=T2

So, apparently this Rhodes Scholar decided to poison priceless live oaks over a sports revelry. Because he told this radio show 2 MONTHS after using this extremely effective tree-killer, those trees are likely doomed. To me, this is a microscopic view that illustrates the sheer ignorance that is at the core of so much casual cruelty. It's so very easy to destroy things, and so hard to preserve them, and how much do you want to bet that someone will be laughing that "tree-huggers" cried at a news conference.

Makes me sick.

Evo

What a jerk. I can't say more or I'd violate the guidelines for civility. And this wasn't even some young kid, he's 62 years old!

nismaratwork

Yep, that was my reaction.

turbo

In the 60's we were in a mad fight to save Maine's elm trees from destruction by Dutch elm disease. Bingham's downtown and the University of Maine's beautiful Orono campus were horribly scarred by the loss of so many majestic trees. Nothing seemed to work. We had trees "tapped" and looking like sugar maples in the spring, except instead of removing sap, we were injecting compounds that we hoped would protect the elms from beetle-damage and/or the disease they carried. The organist in my college band was a horticulture major and the resident caretaker of the UMO greenhouse. He would be in tears to learn that someone had actually poisoned beautiful trees like that.

The city of Waterville was once known as "the Elm City" because of all the tall graceful elms lining its streets. You'd be hard-pressed to find a surviving elm today. Slow-motion damage, but just as devastating as a fire in the long term.

czelaya

When I first heard about this in the gym, about 3 hours, ago I wasn't too alarmed. However, as I walked out the gym I stopped to enjoy the beautiful weather we're having here in the south. I was admiring a set of beautiful trees, rustling in the wind for about 20 minutes.

It all of sudden hit me that this individual has destroyed a natural scene that countless people have enjoyed, and many will never admire. Not only has he destroyed a natural aritifact but a precious landscape that can't be easily recovered over a series of pathetic games.

Destiny153

Wow way to descirbe nature!!!!!!!! though its all very true

nismaratwork

It's terrible, but for one person to do so much damage so quickly... horrific.

@czelaya: Well said, sad, but well said.

Proton Soup

it's not ignorance, just meanness.

i'm not surprised that he called the Finebaum show to brag about it. Finebaum has been trolling the rednecks for years here. most don't take it too seriously, even though it is the state religion here, but some folks will get wound up like this.

nismaratwork

He would have to be more than "mean" in my view to do this if he were genuinely aware of the impact he would have.

Chi Meson

This makes me very angry.

Proton Soup

a good portion of the fans will be ticked off.

as far as the trees? sure, they have cultural significance. but as a resource, they're a dime a dozen down here. we knock 'em down to build malls and housing all the time.

nismaratwork

I know... it's not as though he introduced the blight on American Chestnut... I'm just horrified by the sheer <series of curses in English, Hebrew, Russian, and a few other> of it.

Besides, there's something essentially disgusting about ANYONE, but especially a 67 year old man killing a tree that's made generations happy. It doesn't really matter if it made them happy for reasons I find silly... it was so... well you said it, it's mean.

@Chi Meson: I'm sorry that you're angry, but I'm glad this makes you angry.

Jack21222

Man, some of you people are going nuts over a few trees. I expect this kind of disgust reserved for people like Osama Bin Laden, not some guy killing trees.

turbo

My wife has only visited the deep south a couple of times with me. She was very impressed by the appearance of live-oaks. They are very dramatic-looking spreading trees compared to the "lean and mean" trees that can survive Maine's climate. When she saw this story on NBC news tonight, she was horrified. I didn't tell her about this thread or do a set-up of any kind. It was "wham!" and "how could someone do such a horrible thing?"

turbo

Trees? The trees are not the point. The point is that these particular trees were a focal point for school celebrations, and some idiot decided that he needed to take matters into his own hands and kill them to spite the supporters of a rival school. How sick is that?

Jack21222

So? They'll plant new trees. Or buy them. It's not "sick" at all. Your average, workaday rapist is a thousand times more sickening than this person, maybe more, but I don't see people posting and flipping out about every single rape in this country every day.

Evo

New trees wont reach that size in the lifetime of anyone here. The point is that it was a wasteful, spiteful, stupid thing to do because of a crazed sports rivalry.