Florida's Oldest Tree Burned Down By Woman Smoking Meth Beneath It

American culture on the skids

What I find even harder to believe is that there are people in this thread defending her!!! Wonder how they'd talk if she had done a B&E or light their house's on fire? The Holier than thou sentiment would probably fade away real quick. Drugs! What a waste of humanity!

I feel bad for what on the tree that well known for being the oldest tree in the city and fifth on the whole country. It hard to preserve a tree for a long time like this. The best thing to do now is planting more trees.

Couple things:

Please relearn the definition of the word "unbelievable". I know what hyperbole is; but this is just bad writing. It instantly makes the reader not want to take you seriously. Many unbelievable horrors await future generations. Not seeing this tree didn't make the list. Lengthy prison time? There are so many problems with that proposal that I do not know where to start and will not even

Oh no, we lost a tree. What will we ever do without that big old tree? This is stupid news.

when nice going dip shit

I wish we could Burn her down too, but only After she has to replace the tree with 3,500 new sapplings planted accross Florida! ... Stupid Meth Ho !

W are all retarded..thousands of trees are knocked down everyday for useless matierialistic needs that we crumple up and throw away when we are finished...all for the LOVE of money...and a human burns 1 down and it causes a commotion.  The LOVE needs to be directed to the earth and each other...our morals and values are so a$$backwards, we deserve whats coming to us...

The Catholic Church and dumb Haitians are trying to find more children to molest. So the Haitians are killing 100 year old oaks on the Notre Dame site. Typical.

Cannot Believe this.  People are so stupid.

Herald reports the Catholic Church and the non-English speaking Haitians are killing majestic oaks on NE 2nd Avenue so the church can bus in more customers.

The Haitians aren't poor enough? The Church wants more customers. So they killed 3 trees with another 25 to go.

Deport the Haitians. Prison for the pedophile Priests.

Tree jail for you!

The Archdiocese of Miami is in the process of killing 20-25 majestic oaks on the Notre Dame site at NE 2nd Avenue and NE 62nd Street so it can build a bigger parking lot for it's Haitian non-English speaking customers. They are as addicted as Meth Heads.

Do Meth Heads seduce teenagers?

That was a pretty old tree...

selfish bitch,she should be burned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Burn her? Seriously? It's a tree. I mean, I get it: it's old, historic—whatever. And, yeah, she's a drug addict. The whole thing is tragic and sad. But, it's a tree, people. She's a human being.Now don't get me wrong—I think the loss of this tree is awful. It was a link to the past, and not just by its age. In fact, I heard about this story on Facebook from a dear friend of mine. He commented about how his father, who died some years ago from ALS, used to take the family to see this tree. For him, a piece of his personal history was destroyed.And, it was an accident. Sure, an accident caused by stupidity and illegal activities, but not a spiteful act of vandalism. Furthermore, we—as a nation and as global citizens and consumers—intentionally destroy ancient sites, including trees, by the thousands every day in the normal course of "progress". I'm sure most of the glib, would-be executioners here would just as quickly chant the crowd frenzy "BURN 'EM" if this article were instead about how ancient trees were preventing the tapping of a rich oil reserve.So congratulations, bloggers. You stand for...well, nothing. You've learned to take sides. You recognize the status quo instinctively. You are a survivor. You recognize the popular sentiment. You know who is going to get voted off the island. You switch sides as part of the game as it suits you.Only this is not a game show. This is someone's daughter. This is our sister. The speed with which we turn on each other does not ensure our survival, but rather, our mutual destruction.

But "I'm just venting" -Anonymous

The Internet might afford you some anonymity, at least until the government has COMPLETELY obliterated our rights while we bicker among ourselves, but just like it takes one person to begin a mob stampede or a last-second-merge traffic jam, we are each always setting the bar for each other.

When people stand for nothing in-particular, they lack anchors to guide their behaviors. They allow mob mentality to guide them and then become capable of horrendous acts. Hitler knew this. He didn't start his genocidal campaign with the slogan, "burn the Jews". People would have recoiled in horror. He led the Nazi party down a path of ever-increasing hostilities, culminating in death camps, torture, and mass murder.

Your words have power. Think before you speak. If this young lady were tied to a tree (albeit a non-historical, non-ancient, everyday expendable tree) and you were handed the torch, would you set her afire and watch her agonizing and gruesome death? If you were alone? With a crowd of like-minded onlookers? If you were carrying out a state-mandated sentence?

I hope you answered "no" to all of these questions. If not, you are un-American, as cruel and unusual punishment is decidedly and expressly forbidden by the Bill of Rights. Of course, we threw that one out by example when we decided that torture during interrogation was acceptable.

We, as a society, don't erode overnight. Instead, we say things thoughtlessly, first to ourselves, then out loud. Then those voices gain chorus. Then we're burning young witches at the stake. The devil is in her. Get her.

That tree had far more value than she ever did. I say the bitch gets burned alive herself. The only way we can have a better future is if we eradicate the earth of the ignorant and stupid. I've seen people balance al sorts of drug habits perfectly so I have no pity for those assholes who let it consume their lives. Beautiful creation of nature's longevity has been destroyed because we live in a world where dumbasses are allowed to breath.

Haitians killed two 100+ year old majestic oak trees on the Notre Dame site. They are about to kill 25 more.

Deport Haitians. Save our majestic oaks.

yep, meth trumps everything. Stupid piece of crap.

Meth is a terrible drug!! To all you meth addics out there who might be reading this- STOP USEING THIS DRUG!!! In time you will loose all your teeth and look 20 years older than you are and have major health problems in the future. You loose friends ,family and possibly your life at a young age. As far as this woman. I'm just speechless. God help her.

The Lorax does not approve

I guarantee you that if you spent a week with this lady you would be begging to trade her in for the tree.

meth head vs ancient tree  

I concur with Linzy and would like to point out that this was an accident.  Also her use of meth is mostly unrelated to the incident as it was the fire she lit to see that started the burn. Granted if she wasn't trying to hide out she probably wouldn't have been there, but again this was an accident and I hope the judges look at the situation with reason.  If she had gotten methed out and chopped the tree down on purpose it would be more reasonable to make meth the issue and institute a harsh punishment for despicable behavior.  Lets not judge for we can't understand this young girls circumstances.  Undoubtedly she has some problems but her acts weren't malicious why should should we be so harsh on her.  Very sad to see this tree go -perhaps we can focus the feelings of loss towards an effort to preserve forests being deliberately logged?  The news is going to make a mockery and environmental issue out of this girl for one tree yet they wouldn't touch Georgia Pacific logging millions of acres in the Southeast with a 10' pole.  

This is a sad situation. I sympathize with the woman and her addiction and now her addiction has led to the demise of such a landmark. I hope if anything comes from her punishment that it's sobriety and she can one day respect the beautiful things that God has put here for us to enjoy. :)

she is 26?! she looks like she is 40.

I hope she gets the help she needs.

rotfl, dude thats just too funny! Burn baby burn!Total-Privacy dot US

So sad. For all parties involved. I hate to see great trees go, especially when it is by stupidity. But then again, we all allow old tree resources to be destroyed daily, so we cannot just put all the blame on the misdirected addict. She stated that she frequented this location to smoke, should have been security in place to protect such an important resource.  

srsly bros you gotta chill on.  the lady's like just trying to get her tweak on.  nayhmsayin.  so what if she's smoking meth.  it effing feels good.  if it feels good do it.  who cares about a stupid tree anyways they ain't doing ish for me.