Can’t sleep trees will eat me

July 20, 2024 10:13 AM

The mystery of the Welland trees faces.

Someone has been carving elaborate faces into living trees in Welland, Ontario. The city arborists are not happy and are decrying the carvings as vandalism that could kill the trees. Is it art or is it vandalism?

posted by fimbulvetr (17 comments total)

Is it art or is it vandalism?
Vandalism would be screwing up someone's fixable walls with your oversized doodles. This is much worse than vandalism.
posted by pracowity at 10:33 AM on July 20 [15 favorites]

"But when it comes to identifying the tree chiseler, police are stumped. "
posted by 3.2.3 at 10:37 AM on July 20 [7 favorites]

Call in Special Branch!
posted by chavenet at 10:54 AM on July 20 [11 favorites]

Cuts are infection vectors for trees just like for animals, and I’m gonna go ahead and bet this person wasn’t carefully sterilizing all their equipment between trees. This sucks.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:55 AM on July 20 [4 favorites]

Boy, just what I needed at this particular juncture, another thing to be helplessly infuriated and outraged about! (No slam to fimbulvetr for posting, I'm just feeling sad and sore lately. And a big lovely well-grown maple right outside my living room window, which always colored beautifully in the fall, had to be cut down the other day due to earlier storm damage, which left me grieving. These days I seem to be fonder of trees than of quite a few people, I have to admit.)
posted by Kat Allison at 10:58 AM on July 20 [6 favorites]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's likely an asshole.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 11:02 AM on July 20 [8 favorites]

To be more charitable, I think this might just be... someone who doesn't understand how trees work? Like, they see a tree with someone's initials carved in it, and think "wow, trees are sturdy and can withstand being mutilated a bit" and didn't do their research. So, maybe less of an asshole, and more of a dumbass.
posted by phooky at 11:14 AM on July 20 [12 favorites]

Yeah, my vote is on "Ooh, I'll be like Bansky, do a cool art" and did them, and only now learning, on reading the news, that the damage is actually going to kill the trees. I want to believe that the person now regrets having hurt the trees, and will not do it again. (although I also bet they won't confess.)
posted by The otter lady at 11:28 AM on July 20 [5 favorites]

One day, when we are civilized, this will be treated as the crime against a nonhuman person that it is. Until then, all we can reasonably do is carve a few faces out of the artist’s trunk and ask afterward whether they think it’s art or vandalism. This might shorten the carver’s lifespan, of course, but something something suffer for your art.
posted by cupcakeninja at 11:42 AM on July 20 [2 favorites]

One mitigating thing about this are the trees that were carved - Manitoba maple, Norway maple, and poplar - are all fast growing, short lived trees. On top of that, Manitoba maple and Norway maple are invasive in Ontario and depending on the species the poplars may be as well. Trees Canada lists Norway maple and white poplar as invasive tree killers.

People still shouldn’t be carving up trees, but in this case they may be better off being replaced with a native species.
posted by fimbulvetr at 11:53 AM on July 20 [16 favorites]

Maybe his punishment should include having to get a professional certificate in arboriculture so he'll know all about how to care for trees when he's doing his mandatory time cleaning the parks.
posted by pracowity at 1:16 PM on July 20 [3 favorites]

Call in Special Branch
branches, useful for bridge grafting if a tree was girdled, may be unnecessary. such damage might benefit from repair with bark patches [treenet.org:]
"trees may survive with as little as 10-20% vascular connection or less if they are young and healthy. Under these circumstances, the “do nothing to the tree” option may be an appropriate response provided that good arboricultural management practices are implemented subsequent to the injury."
posted by HearHere at 4:33 PM on July 20 [1 favorite]

"They're appealing to anyone with information to come forward, says [Const. Luke] Lindley."
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:35 PM on July 20

I once had someone carve a face in my side while I was waiting for an overdue bus. I did not appreciate it at all, let me tell you.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:09 PM on July 20 [1 favorite]

The Skeletor one is silly, but the rest of them I really respond to. They remind me of weirwood faces in A Song of Ice and Fire.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:57 PM on July 20

If your art isn't good enough for other people to actually want, you can always force it on people by destroying public property.

This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:40 PM on July 20

Wow I've been lurking around here for 15+ years and never expected to see my little hometown on Mefi of all places.
posted by cecilkorik at 9:34 PM on July 20