Unfortunately, neither Kubinyi's efforts, nor the building, which was erected around 1860 to shelter the most endangered parts of the giant pine, could save the trunk from vandalism. Locals collected fragments of it for building stone and whetstone, swarms of "souvenir collectors" broke pieces from it, local landlords took bigger fragments of it as ornaments for their gardens, and it became a favored material for gravestones. Museums were also frequent visitors and contributed to the damage. Even the protective shelter of the tree was destroyed within two decades after its construction. The shark teeth also attracted the attention of the locals. They imaginatively called them petrified bird tongues and sold them in necklaces to the tourists, who came to visit the wonders of petrified nature. The footprint sandstone proved to be ideal cobble, building stone and was used even for the building of the protective cellar for the fossil tree. Locals held picnics on the eroded surface of the paleosurface and danced on top of the prehistoric footprints. Paleontologists excavated and collected the most exotic tracks, and left the exposed surfaces to weathering and accessible to private collectors. Several tracks were lost, and only sketches of them survive. Those, who cared for the site, stopped publishing papers, because they realized that new discoveries generated a new flow of collectors to the site. The most pro conservation scientists finally decided to stop further excavations, until everything already exposed was sheltered (Tasnádi, 1976). Despite the fact that the site officially became protected in 1944, several decades went by before the protection became effective. Permanent staffing with guided tours along the established geological study trail in the early 1980s was the solution. Excavated areas where tracks were exposed became covered by conservation buildings, and new interpretation trails were opened later. The site has become a favored destination for tourists. Land ownership problems were solved as the area was acquired by the Hungarian state, and the Bükk National Park Directorate (BNPD) gained land manager status; thus the number of factors impeding conservation management was reduced significantly. The site was declared a part of the Pan-European natural heritage by the Council of Europe in 1995. The area is on the tentative list of the world heritage and a European Diploma holding site. As the scientific and information centre of the Novohrad-Nógrád Geopark, the site provides several programmes for a whole day, including guided tours along its famous geological study trail or world-class 4D movies about the prehistoric past in its Visitor Centre.