Eunews

The world famous tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland has been felled by vandals overnight, park authorities fear.

The tree, which was voted English Tree of the Year in 2016 , is visited by tens of thousands of walkers each year and featured in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.

Northumberland National Park said it had “reason to believe” that the tree had been illegally felled overnight and Northumbria Police said it was investigating.

The public has been asked to stay clear of the scene while investigations are ongoing.

Nestled in a dramatic dip in Hadrian’s Wall , the sycamore tree was one of the most photographed trees in the country, and was located between Milecastle 39 and Crag Lough, about two miles west of Housesteads Roman Fort.

The wall and adjacent land, including the site of the tree, are owned by the National Trust.

A spokesman for Northumberland National Park Authority said: “Northumberland National Park Authority can confirm that sadly, the famous tree at Sycamore Gap has come down over night. We have reason to believe it has been deliberately felled.

“We are working with the relevant agencies and partners with an interest in this iconic North East landmark and will issue more details once they are known.

“Northumberland National Park Authority would like to ask the public not to visit the site at this time whilst we work with our partners to identify what has happened and to make the site safe.”

The tree is believed to be several hundred years old and won The Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year competition in 2016 after receiving 21 per cent of nearly 12,000 votes cast by the public.

The tree was nearly destroyed in 2003 when a helicopter carrying Alan Titchmarsh crashed just metres from the spot, the TV gardener narrowly escaping injury.

In recent years it became known as the Robin Hood Tree after featuring in a key scene in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

It also appeared in the music video for Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It for You which featured on the film’s soundtrack.

A spokesman for the North East Heritage Library said on Twitter: “This spot means so much to so many people, and I can’t imagine any authority would be stupid enough to fell this tree especially without preliminary approval.

“If this is a rogue job I hope there’s consequences.”

One woman, who visited the site on Thursday, posted a picture on Facebook of the felled tree with the caption: “An awful moment for all walking Hadrians wall the Sycamore Gap tree has gone! Not the storm an absolute f— felled it!!”

Another user replied: “I am absolutely heartbroken as someone that is there often taking photos.”

The Woodland Trust said it was “horrible” to see that the tree had been felled.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “We can confirm an investigation has been launched following damage to the Sycamore Gap Tree in Northumberland.

“Enquiries are ongoing to establish whether any criminal offences have been committed.”

Kim McGuinness, Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, said she was “incandescent” and promised to raise the matter personally.

Since January the illegal felling of trees has been punishable with unlimited fines and prison sentences.

The National Trust , which manages the site, said it was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.

Andrew Poad, general manager, said: “The tree has been an important and iconic feature in the landscape for nearly 200 years and means a lot to the local community and to anyone who has visited the site.”

Superintendent Kevin Waring, of Northumbria Police, said: “This is an incredibly sad day. The tree was iconic to the North East and enjoyed by so many who live in or who have visited this region.

“As a Force, we are fully committed to finding out the full circumstances and we will consider every tactic at our disposal in this investigation. Anyone found to have been responsible for this damage – which we believe to be a deliberate act of vandalism – can expect to be dealt with swiftly and appropriately.”

“I dread to think what will happen if we are not here,” Andrew Chadwick said as he looked out across the purple and green patchwork of moorland he manages. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

He has been a gamekeeper in the Peak District for the last 37 years, just as his father was before him. But his post could soon be lost as the water company that owns the land is effectively banning shooting .

United Utilities (UU), the country’s largest corporate landowner, announced just weeks before Saturday’s Glorious Twelfth that it will not be renewing shooting licences on its land.

The company has in recent years focused on rewilding, and it has said it will allow it to “accelerate the restoration and rewetting of our peatlands”.

“I just don’t think that the people who have made this decision know what we do up here or understand the moors,” Mr Chadwick said. “I think that they will regret the decision.”

This week he has been counting the grouse on Peak Naze moor, near the town of Glossop, using a pack of English setters who race through the heather to sniff out the cubbies.

On a good year, the syndicate that leases the moor can get six days shooting. They count the numbers so that they can ensure that breeding pairs and a healthy population survives the season.

Because the numbers are low, largely due to the heatwave early in the season which killed off their food, the syndicate will only get one day’s shooting this year.

But Mr Chadwick will still manage the moor for the other 364 days, on call day and night.

“I either wanted to play for Manchester United or become a gamekeeper, it was my dream job,” he jokes.

His tasks include cutting the heather to create patches which both act as a firebreak and create a habitat for the birds. He monitors pests and disease and – where necessary – removes heather to stop the spread and controls predators and vermin, including foxes.

As a result of the management, birds including curlews, peregrine falcons, lapwing, golden plover, oystercatchers and marlin are thriving, and the moor is among the top in the country for bird conservation.

David Naylor, the neighbouring farmer who grazes his sheep on the Peak Naze, said that he has seen subsidies for conservation come and go. When he took over the farm in 1988 there was money available for restoring the heather and an insistence on controlled burning, which is now all but banned.

‘No common sense in rewilding at all’

“Rewilding seems to be the latest fashion, but there is no common sense in it at all,” he told The Telegraph. “People always seem to be chasing the latest subsidies. Between us tenant grazers who keep stock on the moors and the shooting people we keep the balance.

“There have been generations of work to get the moors to where they are now. By the time they realise what a foolish carry-on rewilding is it could take years – generations – to get it back. If you can get it back.

“It is supposed to be about conservation, but the birds will disappear, the sheep will disappear. All they will rewild is vermin and within five years there will be a big fire up there.”

Fire prevention is one of Mr Chadwick’s main roles, reported shoot tenant Richard May, a local farmer, who said that in the summer he prays every night when he goes to bed that the moor will not be set ablaze.

He has had a lease to shoot on Peak Naze since 2009. Since then, there has not been a single fire. By comparison, two neighbouring moors not managed for shooting have seen 13 fires over the same period.

As we stood on the peak, the edge of the shoot’s two and a half thousand acres dominates most of the horizon, and in the distance to the west you can see the skyscrapers of Manchester.

Also visible is Saddleworth Moor, where a fire in 2018 burned for three weeks , saw parts of Manchester evacuated and released half a million tons of carbon from the peat.

Researchers from the University of Leeds have since estimated that it exposed 4.5 million people across the northwest of England to dangerous levels of pollution and will increase premature deaths by 165 per cent.

‘The biggest worry is a wildfire’

There was no controlled burning allowed on the moor, much of which was managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

“The biggest worry is a wildfire and rewilding will lead to a wildfire,” Mr Chadwick said.

“The main argument from UU is that they want to improve water quality and restore carbon, but that argument is invalid because conservation work is already being done up here.”

He pointed to a gulley of water which runs through the peat which has been made by creating dams – part of a £2.6 million restoration project that has taken place in recent years.

UU said the decision was made to ensure the best possible water quality, a commitment made without mentioning that they were one of England’s worst polluting water companies last year .

If there is a fire, Mr May pointed out, then it will damage the water in the large reservoir below.

“If the moor was left alone then it would be completely covered in heather, it would be a disaster waiting to happen,” he said. “I am much more worried about a fire than I am about getting a day’s shooting.”

Adrian Blackmore, director of shooting at the Countryside Alliance, said that across England and Wales game shooting is the “largest contributor to conservation schemes” and warns that the decision not to renew licences is “entirely self-defeating”.

“United Utilities needs to take account of all available science and evidence which is overwhelming in its support of game shooting and its associated management, and renew shooting leases as and when they come up for renewal. If that does not happen, then the consequences can be expected to be considerable; not simply for wildlife and communities, but also in terms of water management.”

As part of its “consultation” on shooting licences, UU did not ask the opinion of those working on the moors, the tenants have told The Telegraph.

In the face of a massive backlash the company this week agreed to carry out “an independent review of each shooting licence. The review will seek to understand fully the environmental, economic and social impact of our proposals, to ensure we maximise opportunities to safeguard and improve the region’s future water resources, while minimising the impact on livelihoods and communities”.

But while the tenants say that the company has so far been silent, campaign group Wild Moors, run by animal rights activist Luke Steele, said that it has been in “dialogue” with them. As a shareholder, Wild Moors presented a proposal at the 2021 AGM calling on them to end grouse shooting and “restore” the land.

Peter Pedder, who runs a shoot syndicate on UU land in the Forest of Bowland, fears that an anti-shooting sentiment is behind the decision to end the lease, which will mean that this season could be his last. He has said that a decision to end licences would be “a bit like banning cricket”.

“This doesn’t just affect me, it affects the whole area,” he said. “I employ a gamekeeper who has a child at the local school. You are taking away a business from a remote rural area. If you go to the Inn at Whitewell on a Saturday night it is packed and they have all been shooting.

“It’s not just the guns, I have got about 30 or 40 beaters and it is not just about the money that they get from it, this is a bit like banning cricket. Shooting is a major part of the fabric of this society. The estate we shoot on has been managed for shooting for hundreds and hundreds of years.”

‘Bizarre decision taken unilaterally and in secrecy’

He is backed by Nigel Evans, Ribble Valley MP, who has also criticised the “bizarre” decision that he claims “has been taken unilaterally and in secrecy”.

“It is very frustrating,” the deputy speaker said. “We have to remember the rurality of this area where it is really difficult for businesses to flourish and thrive – these are the ones that will be most affected by this – the gamekeepers, the hotels that provide accommodation and the hospitality industry.

“This will have an enormous impact and quite frankly, I want UU to make a U-turn and to at least go through a proper consultation. I want to know the reasons why they have taken this decision and what it has to do with the business that they run.

“If the Government had forced this upon the community, I would be asking for compensation for all of those businesses. Will UU now look to compensate these businesses that they unilaterally are affecting?”

Ian Grindy, who worked for UU in Trough of Bowland for 15 years until 2013, was involved in drawing up many of the leases. Tenants were asked to draw up management plans and the company selected those who would best help improve water quality and protect the environment.

He thought they were working well and as demonstrated by the fact that endangered Hen Harriers were thriving.

“If all of a sudden, these tenancies disappear then I do worry about what that means for a lot of other things, and I particularly worry about fire.”

A UU spokesman said it was “committed to managing, and investing in, all of our assets to improve water quality and resilience for the benefit of the communities we serve.

“These objectives alone underpin the land management policies we apply to the 56,000 hectares of land that we, as a company, own. As part of our work to improve water quality and catchment resilience as we face the emerging risks of climate change, we are looking at all activities on our land.”

Announcing the independent review, it added: “We take our responsibility seriously to engage fully with our community stakeholders. We are aware there are many voices and points of view and we will listen to everyone involved.”

Deadly red fire ants could soon invade Britain, experts fear, after the first colonies were discovered in Europe.

Entomologists have found 88 red fire ant nests spread over five hectares near the city of Syracuse, in Sicily, Italy, the ant’s first official sighting on the continent.

Distribution modelling shows that under current environmental conditions, the ants could spread across seven per cent of Europe, with London a prime candidate for colonisation .

The south coast of England, southern Wales and parts of the Midlands could also be at risk from the invading species according to the new research, published in the journal Current Biology.

Spanish researchers visited Sicily after seeing photos of the ants and found that locals had been getting stung frequently for several years.

Red fire ants, known officially as Solenopsis invicta, are native to South America , but have spread to the US, Mexico, the Caribbean, China, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand where they have been eradicated.

“S. invicta is one of the worst invasive species. It can spread alarmingly quickly,” said lead author Mattia Menchetti of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain.

“Finding this species in Italy was a big surprise, but we knew this day would come.

“There are a vast number of alien ant species currently established in Europe , and the absence of this species was kind of a relief. For decades, scientists have feared that it would arrive. We could not believe our eyes when we saw it.

“The locals have been experiencing these painful things since at least 2019, so the ants have probably been there for a while.”

A single red fire ant can bite and sting its victim repeatedly, causing a burning sensation and in some cases chest pains, nausea, dizziness and anaphylactic shock.

Millions stung annually

They have been responsible for more than 80 deaths in the US where it is estimated 14 million people are stung annually.

They can also be devastating to agriculture, feeding on almost any plant and invading electrical equipment, causing short circuits and equipment failures.

Genetic analysis suggests the ants probably originated in China or the United States, but the route of entry is unknown. Analyses of the wind direction suggest that flying queen ants could have arrived from the port of Syracuse.

Experts believe that the vast majority of colonisations were caused by humans shipping plants through ports.

The team found that 50 per cent of Europe’s cities are vulnerable to invasion.

“This is especially concerning because many of the cities, including London, Amsterdam, and Rome, have large seaports, which could allow the ants to spread rapidly to more countries and continents,” said senior author Roger Vila, also from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain.

The team hopes to organise citizen science programs in which people would look for S. Invicta and take photos if they think they’ve found the ants.

A Cambridge University student has told how he used artificial intelligence (AI) to help him set a world record for juggling after taking up the hobby to relieve stress from his studies.

James Cozens, an engineering PhD student, said he honed his juggling skills while sat on a unicycle with performance analysis software that he developed himself.

The 23-year-old achieved a Guinness World Record for “most objects juggled while riding a unicycle” – juggling seven balls for 16.77 seconds at Cambridge’s Selwyn College on May 7.

Participants must juggle for a minimum of 10 seconds for a successful attempt.

Software developed by Mr Cozens shows tracking, visualisation and simulation of routines known as “siteswap” – sequences of numbers were used to denote particular juggling patterns.

He told how he drew on techniques and algorithms he learned during his undergraduate degree in information and computer engineering.

“I think the technical approach has really helped because having this academic background means I can develop the software and see where my technique needs to improve, increase my efficiency, and it’s been a lot of fun,” said Mr Cozens, of Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire.

“My PhD is in statistical signal processing, machine learning, so basically artificial intelligence,” he said.

“One side is in generative music, the other is multi-object tracking, which you can imagine is very useful for this kind of juggling software.”

He said the software helped him reach the standard needed to achieve the record.

“The whole purpose of the software is to provide a juggling analysis,” said Mr Cozens.

“It provides information like technical analysis, offers technical advice and visualisation of the routines you’re performing.

“So for me anyway it helped a lot trying to understand my efficiency as a juggler.”

He took up juggling during his first-year exams “just as a stress relief and also as a great break from the academic grind”.

“Then Covid happened, there was a bit more free time and a lot of time to learn new tricks and so on, just a lot of fun,” he said.

“I just carried on juggling, juggling, juggling.

“It was just a lot of fun, I had new ambitions, the record was there, it seemed like a fun thing to try.”

The record was achieved at his college, Selwyn, with two timekeepers, two independent witnesses and the feat verified via the Guinness World Records website.

‘It’s a fun thing to do’

“It took many attempts to get to it,” said Mr Cozens.

“It’s a very unstable system – you have going on juggling at the same time, but the more you practise it the more it slowly builds up and up.

“I spend an hour or so practising a day just as a break from the academic grind. I think it’s a really fun way to get away from pure academics.

“It takes your mind off everything, it’s a fun thing to do.”

He said he practises around Selwyn College, occasionally around the front of King’s College and at Jesus Green, which he described as a “nice picturesque area”.

“I would recommend juggling as a fantastic fun activity to try; it’s also great cardio and stress relief,” he said.

Mr Cozens’s software, originally a hobby project, has been integrated into his PhD work and was first tested at the 2022 European Juggling Convention.

Cambridge academics have threatened to boycott tutorials at the start of the next academic year over pay, in what would be the first action of its kind at the university .

Negotiations broke down between the university and the Justice for College Supervisors campaign group, which is demanding a new pay structure with a set hourly rate of £19.22.

Hundreds of supervisors have reportedly signed up for the boycott. The University and College Union (UCU) said that it “confidently predicts” that “thousands of undergraduates” would be affected.

Unlike strike action, the move will not need a vote of members to go ahead, as it involves only supervisors without contracts.

The UCU said it was “open to negotiations” and has promised to call off the boycott if colleges offer formal contracts.

Students could face no teaching at all

The boycott means that students who have already had their education continuously disrupted , and their exam marks from this year delayed, could face almost no teaching at all when they return in October.

In the past, the impacts of industrial action have been minimised at Oxbridge institutions because of their collegiate systems and their one-on-one supervision teaching.

Strikes have largely hit lectures instead of tutorials – which are run by supervisors employed by colleges but not the university and offer undergraduates in-depth discussions with experts in the field in group sizes ranging from one to three.

This central part of Oxbridge’s elite education, which is taught by a combination of fellows with formal contracts and PhD students, freelancers and self-employed supervisors, has been challenged by the UCU for relying on “criminally underpaid”, precarious employment.

Supervisors without contracts provide half of Cambridge colleges’ total hourly tutorial teaching, according to the union, with wages amounting to as little as £8.30 when accounting for marking and preparation time.

Tutor work ‘like Deliveroo’

Lorena Gazzotti, the vice-president of the UCU’s Cambridge branch, likened the tutor system to gig economy work “like Deliveroo”.

Christos Nikolaou, a PhD student who teaches supervisions in archaeology, said: “Pay is obscenely low. We get less than minimum wage once you’ve marked essays and prepared teaching. We only get crumbs.”

Fergal Hanna, another supervisor who will boycott his chemistry lessons in October, said that his “expertise should not be taken for granted” and claimed there was “no option but to boycott”.

Prof Nicholas Guyatt, a fellow at Jesus College, urged colleges to “improve their offer to supervisors”, stating the university must “protect this precious form of teaching” but also the staff “without contracts who do the work”.

‘Union should represent people in employment’

However, others challenged the decision. Dr Simone Maghenzani, a fellow at Girton College, said that he would “part ways” with the union, arguing that “supervision teaching contracts will never be anything but precarious” and that a “union should represent people in employment”.

A University of Cambridge spokesman said: “The university is aware of, and is directly supporting, constructive dialogue between representatives for the colleges and representatives from the campaign for college supervisors.

“Progress has been made on a number of areas and the negotiations are ongoing, which we continue to support.”