THe wanton destruction of the Sycamore Gap Tree has underscored two sides to humanity’s relationship with totems of the natural world. Some among…
THE wanton destruction of the Sycamore Gap Tree has underscored two sides to humanity’s relationship with totems of the natural world. Some among us, for reasons we may never fully comprehend, seek to annihilate these embodiments of place precisely because of their collectively agreed-upon specialness.
Yews are considered “ancient” when they are older than 800 years and have a girth greater than 23ft. The Fortingall Yew’s greatest recorded size, in the late 18th century, had more than double that girth and, in relative terms, an 800-year-old yew would be a 30-year-old compared to Fortingall’s 90-year-old.Like lobsters, yew trees are theoretically capable of immortality. They do not wither or mend themselves any less effectively regardless of their age.
Alexander Stewart, a shoemaker who lived in Glen Lyon in Perth and Kinross, witnessed this invigoration in the 1920s, writing in A Highland Parish: “The limbs leaned towards mother earth and they seem to have got fresh nourishment from it.” Several varieties of conifers are able to spontaneously change the sex of individual portions of their growth, usually in the crown, and this is exactly what has occurred. After 2500 years, the Fortingall Yew is still finding new ways to surprise us.
On two occasions, I have had to drive off large coach groups brazenly breaking off the yew’s extremities under the careless watch, and even encouragement, of their guides. One group of New Age spiritualists did not seem to comprehend the hypocrisy of saying a prayer to the great tree before proceeding to snap pieces off it until they were thoroughly shamed. Even then, I suspect many of them returned to pilfer more once I moved on. The Fortingall Yew is literally being loved to death.
If the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree – which was not an ancient tree, but a beloved and monumental one nonetheless – compels one immediate action, surely it should be the granting of legal protections to other trees like it. Until this happens, none are shielded from the threat of an axe or chainsaw in the night.We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories.
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