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Update October 16 2010 (visite #16)
The tree in the Rendlesham forest
A new mystery.
Physiological anomaly in Rendlesham Forest ?
Place of discovery: " Friday Street " 200 yard
away from the old USAF Bentwaters military base perimetre fence
Click on the photos to enlarge
Visite 1 - Mid-November 2002
Mid November 2002 my mother went into hospital for an emergency operation and I drove up to Ipswich to be near her and to look after her lurcher, Scally. On the first occasion I
spent three nights at her house and on the second day took Scally for a run in Rendlesham Forest, a long time favourite place for walks and picnics. We stuck to the usual path amongst the trees until Scally
for some reason decided to swing left and I found myself in a part of the forest that was unfamiliar to me. We carried on for some way amongst the pine trees and arrived at a wider, little used track.
I can remember noticing the tree, a white spectre, and as I had been taking photos of our walk for my mother i decided to take a couple of pictures of it.
On returning to London I uploaded
the photos ( digital ) onto my computer and found my curiosity becoming stronger whenever I looked at them.
A week later I was back in the forest having Once again driven up from London to visit my mother.This time Scally and I went straight to the tree with the express intention of studying it more carefully. Although I wasn't to notice it at first, the whole scene, tree and ferns, had already lost its freshness. This became evident on comparing the two sets of photos. I took note of the way in which the white coated resin, like sugar icing, had been ejected from the trunk of the tree, spraying the ferns in a singular northly direction. My first impression was that the tree had been ' hit ' by some intense unknown force which left no signs of physical damage ( I dont know why but the image of a boxer receiving a blow to the side of the head knocking gum shield and saliva out the other keeps coming to mind ) the old USAF Bentwater military base primetre fence was only 200 yards away, and having lived in this part of Suffolk for the first 20 years of my life I was well aware of the strange goings on, and mystery surrounding Rendlesham forest including the 1980 UFO incident. I decided to investigate further and emailed an association which specialised in the effects of lightning strikes on trees. They replied saying that under no circumstances did this sort of damage correspond with their experience of trees hit by lightning. I contacted a site specialising in beetle attack on trees but got no response although the forestry commission spokesman for the area suggested that this was probably the cause. If so I am at a loss to understand why, out of all the thousands of pine trees in the surrounding area this is the only one that has suffered an attack. To this day, two years later, the tree is still alive. A beetle attack on this scale would have meant a rapid demise.
Visite 2 - End November 2002
Visite 3 - February 2003
These photos show the proximity to the Bentwaters perimeter fence.
Visite 4 - March 2003
Four months after the first photos the resin has lost its freshness and has taken on a greyish hue.
A " control " tree from another part of the forest.The damaged trunk was probably the result of a scrape by an off road vehicle. The reaction to this wound is slight; just a light resin flow and nothing like the enormous expulsion of resin engendered by the ' attack ' on our tree. Samples and control samples have been collected and sent to a French scientist for analysis.
control
Visite 5 - November 2004
The tree is still in good health two years after the first photos were taken.
The tree, like all those around it, has been marked for felling.
Visite 6 - January 2007
This photo taken two years later from the same position as the above photo.
In the background the perimetre fence of the USAF base, Bentwaters.
A journey to the area is to be made in the near future to record distances and take comparative photos of other stumps.
All thats left of our tree, the stump.
 |
The geographical position of the tree, updated 27/03/2007 Here is an ordinance survey map of the area. The red, hatched, rectangular box on the left shows the area which has been logged. The tree was practically in the middle and its position is represented by a red dot. Below right another red, hatched, box shows the location of the famous 1980 UFO event in the forest. The arrow points to the approximate site of the landing of the said UFO. |
The opinion of a French botanist - march 25 2007
" On the subject of the tree in Rendlesham forest, you are right, this is indeed strange. I have never seen anything like it ! The strangest thing is that only one tree has been affected by this bizarre oddity.
One can rule out fungus attack, and its definitely not a virus attack. If either of these were responsible the surrounding trees would also have been affected, so its not that. Its as if an electric shock, or
something of that nature has upset the biological system of the tree at a cellular level. One can rule out straight away any question of lightning strike which never has this effect on a tree.
This is a conifer, and as such is very sensitive to the slightest knock and easily weeps resin, though this is rarely white and as omnipresent as in this case. What we have got here is really exceptional !
I can imagine that perhaps some kind of telluric field receiving a magnetic kick could have caused this. The attack has really isolated its subject, and what is even stranger is that it is outside the base...
either its an experiment by something unknown, extra-terrestial maybe, or the tree was the victim of a military experiment that went wrong.
I however have my doubts about this last theory as most military experiments are conducted with the utmost discretion, and if it this was the case they would have failed miserably here !
There you are, I have to say that this case leaves me baffled, though I hope I have been able to throw some light on the case.
Florent. "
Visite 7 - April 15 2007
Control stump - about 25 cm of the trunk left above the ground.
Another control - about 25 cm from the ground.
The remains of our tree. Cut close to the ground. !
The same
The stump is coated with a thick white crust. When I lifted up this crust at the centre of the stump I found a sticky mass of black resin underneath. The stump had been cut much closer to the ground than the other trunks.
Visite 8 - May 6 2007
The stump with tools just before cleaning and planing.
Before - The stump with tools just before cleaning and planing.
After- The stump cleaned up and planed.
Visite 9 - May 11 2007
The return a week later to check the condition of the stump after its initial clean-up.
The stump which was cleaned up and planed 5 days earlier is once again covered with a thin layer of resin and white stuff which has risen from the roots since the last visit.
Is the stump still active 18 months after the tree was felled...!
The stump once again cleaned up.
Close up of the centre.
Visite 10 - December 6 2008
Six controls stumps.
These control stumps are to be found within the immediate environnement of our tree stump. They all display probable signs of insect attack .
Images of our tree stump.
Here you will notice that there are no holes on the surface of the stump. This tree has not been colonised by beetles or other insects which left holes in the control stumps.Why ?
Did the continuing presence of pine resin prevent this from happening ?
Today we still have no idea what happened to this tree, and have not been able to find any precedent. No-one has been able to throw any light on this case.
Visite 11 - May 16 2009
The white tree's stump .
I cut a slice from the material which has built up around the outside of the stump, and in doing so accidentally knocked off a bit of the scab covering the centre
One can see that it is like an unhealed sore and that the resin is still rising.
Insects have finally started to attack the stump on its outer edge.
Gros plan
The edge
The bit removed, as big as the spade width, is nearly all resin and is heavy and dense, like freshly cut bog peat bricks.
An enlargement of the centre.
Visite 12 - july 14 2009
The centre looks more and more like a virulent open wound.
I sliced into the side of the stump with my trowel to take samples.
I was surprised to discover that it was made up of a sticky, crystaline substance rather like marzipan.
It had a strong smell of pine resin.
Visite 13 - october 17 2009
The stump appears to have finally lost its life force.
The sap/resin which was only 3 months ago so active has become hard, dull and lifeless, not unlike concrete.
The weeping ' sore ' on the centre has all but dried up and the once polished surface
of the stump is displaying radial cracks.
It wont be long before it resembles the other ' control ' stumps around it.
Is this the end ?
Visite 14 - 1st May 2010
1 May. The tree stump at 10am
The scab, which has formed over the centre of the stump over the past months, is scratched off showing that the flow of resin has not abated.
3 hours later, about 1pm, I returned to the tree stump and noticed that resin, during this short space of time, had welled up to cover the lines I had scratched earlier when I removed the original scab.
Control stumps #1
Control stumps #2. All the stumps within 100 metres of our tree stump are like these controls; no sign of life.
Visite 15 - July 21 2010
Visite 16 - October 16 2010
5 years have passed since this mysterious tree was cut down , and the stump is still sending up sap....
I arrive at the spot in the afternoon of the 16 October.
the 'scab' is removed with a blade.
30 minutes later the sap has started to rise again.
I scrape the blade across the surface to remove the sap.
Conclusion - May 2009
Since 2002 We have been studying the question of what could have possibly happened to this tree. We have still not arrived at an answer.
We have covered a lot of ground since 2002 in our research on this question and have been in touch with many specialists. No-one has been able to give us a convincing
explanation. The web site Culture-crop.com is principly dedicated to observing and reporting on methods of flattening food crop stems ( wheat, barley, oil seed rape ) either mechanically or through other methods
using forces unknown. However when William had the fortuitous encounter with this tree back in 2002 we felt it imperative that we should study it, and present our findings as we have done over the years.
We hope to eventually find a solution; to simply understand would suffice. But several years have passed and during this time no-one has come forward to give us a lead or offer any real constructive theory, even
though the interest generated has been substancial ( the web page dedicated to the tree has been visited 8000 times ).
We had looked forward to following the evolving story of our tree, but as you know the tree has now been cut down.
The theory that it was hit by some sort of electromagnetic radiation has struck the imagination. The energy absorbed would have been converted to heat inside the tree and would have increased its internal
temperature, resulting in the expulsion of resin. This is though only a hypothesis and there is to our knowledge no precedent anywhere which would offer a visual comparison.
We all know that ' non-lethal ' weapons are now being used in certain circumstances. This is not a myth and its easy to find stories about these emerging technologies and the way they work, using a combination
of lasers and microwaves.
So considering that neither a known disease, nor parasite, nor lightning have been clearly identified, the above theory remains a possibility.
What do we do now? ? : Spread the word about this event in the hope that we will get to hear of a similar one, explained or not, with which we can compare it.
to be continued...
W i l l i a m B e t t s |
Culture-crop.com en association avec La télévision paysanne
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