Meth junkie burns down 3,500 year old tree

[Colour Scientist]

Not to mention the harm to tourism. Its the 5th oldest tree. Do you have any idea how valuable that is to any local tourism economy? She just destroyed something the state could use to bring tourism in.

I don't know about anyone else but when I go on holiday, I don't pick my destination based on where their trees rank on the 'Really, Really Old Trees List'. Sure, if I stumble across it I'll think 'huh, that tree is old' and go about my business.

I bet a majority of the people here never gave a shit about, or had never heard about, that tree until today and yet now you're crying for blood.

Poor girl, I hope she gets help.

 

[repeating integers]

You mean someone burned down a tree?
Those trees we cut down every day?

Cry me a fucking river.

Why do so many people here have such a strong dislike for their own species so much?

Because some of their species would like to torch a human being to avenge a tree

This particular human being isn't worth much more than your average tree, tbh.

 

[FamoFunk]

I can't get over how fucking awful that thing they call a Woman looks.

Don't do Meth kids.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Legalize all drugs they said. There will be no negative effects they said. Drugs are a natural part of humanities diet they said.

 

[albear]

The 'New' world's 5th oldest tree is rubbing its branches togeather going "he he he 4 more to go till im crowned KING OF THE TREES"

 

[godofallu]

If the tree was so important then why was there nobody around to notice?

Scary picture.

 

[kaizen2468]

She's frigging 26? Seriously? Man I knew Meth fucked you up but that's just incredible.

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

She's frigging 26? Seriously? Man I knew Meth fucked you up but that's just incredible.

To be fair that's a very bad pic, she does look like she's been on a week long drugs binge, but her actual mugshot is nowhere near as bad.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2108028/Sara-Barnes-burned-3-500-year-old-tree-called-The-Senator-needed-drugs-doing.html

PS apologies for using the daily fail

 

[manaman]

3500 years? Damn, that's impressive. I thought 400 years was streching it when it came to trees.
*totally missing the point*

Well it depends on how you define a tree. It also depends on what criteria you use to describe something being the same plant. There are several clonal plant colonies that are far older and some are pretty easy to describe as the same plant like creosote bush rings (there are in California, and some are between 10,000 and 12,000 years old). There is also Pando, which is, well you have access to wikipedia. Look that sucker up. Quite possibly the oldest, largest, and heaviest organism in the world with some arguing it's nearly one million years old.

Sure the trees you see above ground are not nearly that old, but the interconnected root system below the ground sure is.

Oregon's Armillaria is bigger.

LOL

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus

No it isn't. By area yes, it would be if it turns out it's not a group of colonies, they still haven't verified that. Which is why you always see "thought to be largest by area" when you see descriptions of that fungus, not "largest known." Even then, Pando would outweigh that fungus. It's root structure is fully interconnected. Even larger than the fungus by area is a colony of sea grass in the Mediterranean sea, which stretches the definition of signal organism, but hey I did mention before it's all in how you define things.

They've verified that it's all genetically identical, that's good enough for me.

And area would be what I'm talking about when I say it's bigger. Otherwise I'd say heavier.

You realize it's not one giant mushroom, but mycelium in the ground they are talking about right? That there are roads through that land that more likely then not divide up that organism. It may at some point have been a single organism, but thanks to people it's more likely several genetically identical organisms now. It's always been disputed that it is a single organism anyway and not several colonies, but you won't read that in your news article headline because it doesn't make for the best read.

Which brings me to your back peddling. Next time just say you didn't know what you where talking about because of bad information. Don't try to cover it up by pretending you had some different definition of "larger" than everyone else that you kept secret for some reason.

 

[Kingsman]

I really, really hope they throw the book at her. That is a travesty. It's an INTERNATIONAL landmark, gone forever.

Hope it never leaves her conscience.

 

[synulia]

I say put her to death. Yeah it's harsh, but she's a waste of skin. A parasite.

 

[manaman]

I'm not covering anything up, since when has larger ever meant heavier? It covers a larger amount of ground, I'd call that larger.

As for the roads divvying it up, where's your proof it's been cut from the rest?

By that logic a lion's mane jelly fish is larger than a blue whale because it's tentacles can reach longer lengths. It isn't larger, it's longer. This honey mushroom in Oregon isn't larger then Pando, it lives in more ground.

As for the proof you asked about. I never offered any nor did I intend to. I never made a definitive statement. Even I admit that while not quite as likely some of Pando's roots might be dead, isolating parts from the rest, making them separate organisms, you can't exactly know for sure without digging the whole thing up and checking it out. Same with the fungus. What you can do is look at the evidence you have and come to a reasonable conclusion.

The discovery of most of these clonal colonies has occurred relatively recently - Pando has only had the top spot since 1992, the fungus has only really been studied since 2004 following an article about it, and the seagrass was discovered in 2006. Not exactly a lot of time to study these massive organisms. There are already examples found that quite possibly exceed the size of both of these. There is a colony of Coastal Redwoods, and the already mentioned seagrass as candidates for largest organism. There is also another recently discovered colony of aspens in Utah that covers closer to 250 acres (Pando covers 106).

Anyway, go on and believe whatever you want. You have pretty much made statements I can only take as your intention to question anything anyone says to you that does not conform to your already established world views. I'm not going to go out of my way here to prove anything or attempt to educate someone that has no desire to learn. Should I be wrong and you wish to learn more that is another story, and I would be happy to continue this discussion.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Poor girl. Although the comments beneath that linked article are hilarious.

It's disappointing that such an old tree was burnt down and all but fuck, worse things have happened.

 

[Bradeck]

If anyone wants to find her facebook page, it has a few photos of here Pre-methed out. She was actually quite a looker, or dare I say, Smokin. Anyway, who gives a fuck? Some druggy ***** goes to jail and will likely contribute the square root of zero when she gets out, but will produce 3 kids. I'm sure if this ***** had been tazed the internets would be all a flutter.