Gothamist: Wanted: Aborcidal Maniac of Inwood Hill Park

Novanglus

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:28:42 -0500

So someone wanted to build a house with Red Cedars. Big deal.

Dave Hogarty

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:41:53 -0500

I will defer to Barry Popik on the matter of coinage. He cites newspaper appearances of the word "arborcide" in a 1904 article in the LA Times, a 1947 article in the New York Times, and the LA Times again in 1955.

Toby von Meistersinger

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:31:07 -0500

If memory serves, it was Henry Stern who coined the term arborcide during his tenure as Parks Commissioner.

cupoclark

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:46:31 -0500

Does this have anything to do with the big blue ox spotted in astoria?

Jerky

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:14:53 -0500

And if he's carrying an ax and wearing a hockey mask, run through the trees blindly screaming....

jchez

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:31:50 -0500

You are hiking through the woods (Inwood is really forested) and you see a man with an ax, call 911. Absolutely, definitely. Also, get the hell out of there. BTW, I hope this guy gets a splinter that infects and they have to cut off his hand.

Spiritof76

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:15:44 -0500

It takes a brave man to go after trees that can't fight back. I'd like to see poetic justice in this. It'd be great to hear that a man holding an axe was found crushed under a red cedar. Better him than that poor doctor last week.

angry_pickle

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:29:51 -0500

NY has a lot of people with a lot of issues. I suspect the suspect here is a white male.

rcltrh

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:53:17 -0500

The should go down south. They grow so thick they are a nuisance species that everyone cuts for fence posts or sells them off to make cedar lumber for furniture or to make shavings for hamster cages. I have 60 acres in Arkansas that I had stripped of those things a few years back because they were killing out the pine I had planted. Maybe people cut them before Christmas. They make a popular Christmas tree in other parts of the country.

dr zippy

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:50:56 -0500

follow the bark.

Peter

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:42:30 -0500

An aspiring pencil-maker? Red Cedars are the most popular tree for pencils.

jeremyjoyce

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:34:24 -0500

I used to think all those crazy plot lines they came up with in the various editions of Law and Order were just too far fetched, even for NY. That was before I moved here. Since moving and reading The Gothamist, I now know that nothing is impossible in this crazy city. Some one out there has a specific reason to chop down red cedars. They also have the stealth, and the stamina to chop down 30 at a time. Who is this person, are they a chronic allergy sufferer? Were they tied to the aforementioned trees as a child and taunted? Were they possibly participating in a scavenger hunt where 30 red cedars held a particularly large point value?

CR

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:29:29 -0500

Treefucker.

nonumentalart

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:16:45 -0500

let me axe you a question bout this

TJ

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:02:00 -0500

I think you mean arboricidal