'Justice' for Sycamore Gap Two: Why they shouldn't be sent to prison

The two mindless vandals who cut down the Sycamore Gap tree should be forced to atone for their crime by replanting the 49 saplings taken from it – while being publicly shamed

In Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, after a spaceship carrying a group of spectacularly inept humans crash-lands on a new planet, they agree to adopt the leaf as legal tender.

They think they’re rich but inflation rises so high that the price of a single ship’s peanut reaches three deciduous forests. Realising they must “revalue the leaf”, their plan to restore economic stability is simple – “er... burn down all the forests”.

I find this funny, partly because, judging by humanity’s centuries-old deforestation campaign, one might almost think that’s what happened. Two thousand years ago, 80 per cent of Western Europe was forested, it is now down to 34 per cent, according to the National Geographic. In the UK, the figure is only about 13 per cent. In the past four decades, the mighty Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined.

READ MORE: Sycamore Gap's tree is gone forever, but don't forget your other favourites - Gaby Soutar

The famous Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall near Hexham in northern England before it was cut down in an act of mindless vandalism (Picture: Oli Scarff) | AFP via Getty Images

‘Everyone turned against me’

Humans, it seems, hate trees. However, we also love them, as the two men found guilty of cutting down the famous Sycamore Gap tree recently discovered.

While appearing to be unpleasant people, even they may not be entirely insensitive to the widespread condemnation of their actions. Being declared an outcast by society is a real and very serious punishment as 70-year-old Walter Renwick, of Allendale, Cumbria, discovered.

He was falsely accused on social media (where else) of cutting down the tree and then arrested by police. After he was cleared, Renwick spoke movingly about how he had considered killing himself as “everyone turned against me”.

The real culprits, Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, who also managed to damage Hadrian's Wall, are currently in prison on remand and face a sentence of up to 10 years, with the judge warning they could expect “a lengthy period in custody”.

Politicians seem clear about what should happen. Kim McGuinness, the Labour Mayor of the North East, called for “tough sentences” and Glen Sanderson, Conservative group leader on Northumberland County Council, said that “such a revolting and unbelievable act requires a punishment that fits the crime”.

READ MORE: One of Scotland's oldest pine trees dies in solitary spot on hillside

An aerial view showing the felled sycamore, which landed on Hadrian's Wall, causing some damage (Picture: Oli Scarff) | AFP via Getty Images

Bizarre attitude towards nature

Am I the only one who thinks that, while Graham and Carruthers seem like petty, stupid and nasty people, they haven’t actually killed or injured anyone and that the felling of a tree, even a really nice one, should not mean they are imprisoned for years at considerable cost to the taxpayer?

To me, turning this duo into public enemy number one – no doubt only briefly replacing Prince Harry, whose only ‘crime’ appears to be falling out with his family – smacks of our sometimes bizarre attitude towards the natural world.

In this way of thinking, the felled sycamore is less of a tree and more of a celebrity or an icon. We liked it because it looked good in photographs and in the film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and because it was, in our eyes, beautiful.

Demise of Caledonian forest

However, taking humans as a whole, we really don’t care about or value trees at anything like their true worth, as an ecosystem that can support vast numbers of other species.

The Caledonian forest, a wonderful habitat, has been reduced to less than 5 per cent of its original 1.5 million hectares. In some instances, it has been replaced by commercial tree plantations that are positively hostile to almost all other forms of life (as those who try to walk through a particularly densely planted pine forest, as I have, will quickly discover).

I say this as someone who was, for a year, a student of forestry. I have no time for people who express pious outrage on seeing a few acres of recently felled woodland as if this was some kind of sacrilegious act.

Commercial forestry companies are the main source of tree planting and need to make an income in order to do that. It’s just that some need to be persuaded and cajoled to plant more natural woodlands that still generate a healthy profit.

Atonement

Might we be so exercised about one ‘slain’ tree because of a guilty conscience? Probably not, but our anger would certainly be more usefully channelled into greater outrage at our long-standing mistreatment of the natural world.

In my opinion, Graham and Carruthers should be made to make recompense in a practical way that could be used to provide a lesson for others, rather than just jailed and forgotten.

The National Trust has taken 49 saplings from the tree, which will be planted in public spaces across the country as “Trees of Hope”. This, the trust said, would “allow parts of the Sycamore Gap to live on”.

Graham and Carruthers should be given a lengthy community service order instructing them to labour on this project and other tree-planting schemes for free. The public could be invited to watch them work at ground-breaking ceremonies.

Why humans feel shame

Modern societies have largely forgotten this but shame is a ‘bio-social’ mechanism that humans evolved to help maintain order. It is triggered by social interactions, but the rush of blood to the face and other symptoms are biological.

When people in small-scale, hunter-gatherer societies, with no formal legal system, do something wrong, they are typically shamed by others and can start to feel like poor Walter Renwick. They end up being isolated and alone until, eventually, the rest of the village starts to feel sorry for them and they are forgiven.

The relief they feel, after believing that everyone important in their lives had turned implacably against them, provides a powerful incentive to never repeat their transgression.

Just as Graham and Carruthers should be made to feel ashamed of their actions – and experience the relief when it ends – all humans should be ashamed of the way we treat the natural world. Real justice for the Sycamore Gap Two must involve a punishment but it should be one that really does fit the crime and provides a teachable moment about the value of trees for all those looking on.