Charges in burning of 3,500-year-old Fla tree (smoking meth inside)

Yahoo ^ | 2/28/12

[Libloather]

LONGWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a central Florida woman is in jail, charged with setting a fire that burned one of the world's oldest cypress trees.

[Libloather]

From the Grist -

But they’ve now ruled it right back in, arresting 26-year-old Sara Barnes for lighting the Senator on fire while sitting inside it doing meth.

http://grist.org/list/woman-arrested-for-burning-down-3500-year-old-tree/

[HiTech RedNeck]

Sat in the tree and set it afire? A hollow tree? A tree in her yard or in a park?

[Cicero]

[Jack Hydrazine]

[smoothsailing]

[Libloather]

125 feet tall
17.5 feet in diameter
Between 3,400 and 3,600 years old
Over 5,100 cubic feet in volume
Fifth-oldest tree in the world
Oldest pond cypress in the world
Largest pond cypress in the country
Largest tree east of the Mississippi

[ColdOne]

Honestly some times news is just wild.

[cripplecreek]

I think I know of a couple of bigger maple trees. My hometown has a couple of real monsters.

[al baby]

Fifth-oldest tree in the world

OH BS!!!!!!!!!!!

[dinodino]

Yay, Florida!

(in the interest of full disclosure, I am a proud FL resident, but will wonders never cease?)

[Former Fetus]

[Berlin_Freeper]

They will need to update that sign.

[yarddog]

Cypress must be really rot resistant.

A few days ago, I drove by my Mother’s old home. The old barn is still there tho it is not being well cared for. It must be at least a hundred years old.

The sides are made from huge slabs of cypress and do not appear to have deteriorated a bit, despite not being painted or treated in any way that I am aware of.

This is in Florida and pine left untreated like that would rot quickly.

[smoothsailing]

The Tree - Angel Oak

[driftdiver]

Cypress is very rot resistant. About the only wood to use in Florida.

[Nervous Tick]

>> If that meth head wants to set a Senator on fire, I can think of plenty of more worthy candidates.

now that there’s funny

[driftdiver]

And you know its BS how?

[I am bigjohn]

The very fact of singling out 1 tree as the 5th oldest on a planet that hasn't yet been fully explored would make the call of BS a pretty good bet. IMHO

of course if you've conducted a survey of all the rest of the trees....

[al baby]

And you know its not bs how ?!!!!!!!

[CrazyIvan]

“Cypress must be really rot resistant.”

It was used in IL. for hog and cattle pens because it would
not rot even when wet and covered with manure.

[this_ol_patriot]

I planted a Bald Cypress in my back yard (Pennsylvania), seems they’ll grow almost anywhere, it’s 8 years old and about 40 feet high

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

And you know its not bs how ?!!!!!!!

Because you didn't name them. You probably couldn't name them.

[1_Rain_Drop]

How fast does a baldcypress grow?
Does yours have knees?
Have the roots spread on your lawn?
Do you know if the roots will attack a sewer if it runs out of water like a willow would?

This morning I was searching for something to plant in a swamp area on my property. I didn’t want a willow because wouldn’t fit in with the look of my house. My heart skipped a beat when I came across the Baldcypress. I’ve been searching the web for info but haven’t found any info about the roots and water pipes.

RIP Senator.

[Waverunner]

I was visiting a machine shop about a mile away.
As I pulled up, I noticed the newschoppers circling.
Soon the smell of smoke was very heavy in the building.
The people in the shop who were locals were very upset.
They were telling me about their grandparents taking them to see it as children. They had taken their children. Now the chain of tradition is broken by a druggie.Drug use - Meth - another liberal victimless drug crime.

[martin_fierro]

[this_ol_patriot]

No knees it’s not in a super wet area but when it rains it gets more runoff than the rest of the yard, the roots haven’t spread above ground. I remember cypress knees from when I visited Cypress Gardens years ago and it doesn’t have those. It hasn’t made any cones yet.

It looks exactly like this picture, maybe a bit wider.

http://www.tree-pictures.com/baldcypress3.jpg

[Slings and Arrows]

Sheeeee-yit. Time to be back public flogging.

[VeniVidiVici]

I live a couple miles away from the Senator.

It was cold that night. I told my wife that some doper was probably around the tree smoking dope.

[HiTech RedNeck]

well stune mah beeber. that was a hugh and series tree.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It looks like the meth head went to some trouble to light the tree. This wasn’t just a carelessly dropped match, and she got out unscathed then videoed the burning on her cell phone camera.

[beelzepug]

That Angel Oak is the stuff a kid’s dreams are made of. Can you imagine the tree house that you could build up there? I’m 65 and I would still enjoy hiding out in a tree house like that.

[smoothsailing]

You are so right! I love that tree. :)

[1_Rain_Drop]

It’s beautiful.
I look forward to adopting one soon.

[DoughtyOne]

This is genuinely disturbing. What a loss...

3,500 years this tree survived everything thrown at it, then some loadie comes along and burns it down on a lark.

Oh well, the Left is doing the same thing to our nation.

. . . . . . .

I’m really sorry this happened.

[this_ol_patriot]

I got mine at Lowes of all places, the only problems I’ve had with it was rabbits gnawing at first, that was solved with fencing and it does get a few bagworms but I never saw any damage from them. At first I cut them all off but now it’s too tall to do it, since it loses it’s leaves in the fall anyway it hasn’t been an issue. Mine does leaf out later then my other trees but in the fall it changes around the time my red maple does. Both together make a great fall postcard view.

[aruanan]

The very fact of singling out 1 tree as the 5th oldest on a planet that hasn't yet been fully explored would make the call of BS a pretty good bet. IMHO

Please, guys. Don't embarrass yourselves with such an adolescent distinction. When it is said that a tree is the 5th oldest tree in the world, everyone knows what is meant is that it's the 5th oldest of the known oldest trees in the world. Just like when someone says that another is the world's shortest man, it's taken for granted that this means the man who is known to be the shortest in the world. There could be another out there shorter than that, but if anyone said, "You can't say he's the shortest in the world if you haven't gone out and measured each and every living person" he just looks like a child belaboring a point everyone already knows.

[TLOne]

A new world record Pond Cypress, taxiodium ascendens, has just been discovered in a No.Carolina preserve.
More information is in the preserve’s February newsletter
at:
www.walthour-moss.org

[TLOne]

A new world record Pond Cypress, taxiodium ascendens, has just been discovered in a No.Carolina preserve.
More information is in the preserve’s February newsletter
at:
www.walthour-moss.org

[this_ol_patriot]

It’s probably not 40 feet more like 25 to 30, how high is a peaked roof on a single story house, that’s how tall it is. They grow moderately fast but my Thuja “Green Giant” wall of green at the back of my property outpaces it by a longshot.

I would not plant it near sewer lines, I would not plant maples or oaks near sewer lines. Any tree near a sewer line could cause trouble even if it’s just fine hair roots that get in, they will eventually fill up the line and clog it.

Still I have a birch in my front that is about 10 feet away but has a very vertical growth habit, roots often mimic above ground growth. Dogwood, magnolia, redbud, most of the ornamentals can be recommended.

[driftdiver]

Jealousy is an ugly thing, but you can relax. This nice young lady burned the point of contention down.

Few varieties of trees would last anywhere close to this long.

[poobear]

These wander about transient meth heads are all over Florida. They come from everywhere. Too bad they stay. This one was/is a real piece of work. Some come down for bike week and never leave! Ugh!

(Florida resident here too)