[jacquesm]

Highly unlikely, that can happen in a dense forest with unmarked trees but this is controlled land and there is only the one tree there in that particular setting.

Also: then the tree would have been stripped and removed. Someone just cut it down and ran off.

[d1sxeyes]

Unless this particular tree has an identifier of SYT-786B, and tree SYT-7868 was slated for felling, in which case this could have been an error, although you'd expect someone to have double-checked given the prominence of this specific tree.

[orf]

If you’re from a 70 mile radius of that tree, you know its significance. Nobody would drive up and say “wow ok yeah gonna cut down this tree I don’t know what it is”.

[d1sxeyes]

“Hi Boss, I got my work list for today and it says to chop down the sycamore gap tree, are you sure this is right?”

“Hmm, odd, I would have thought there’d have been a separate heads-up on that. Let me check… yep, that’s what it says in the system, guess I must have missed the memo. We’re already behind on the monthly target, see if you can squeeze in three more by the end of the day.”

[Kon-Peki]

Low probability does not mean zero probability, and the vast majority of an investigator's job is dealing with low probability events. Journalists want them to make definitive statements about things that occurred just hours earlier, and their experience says that don't yet know enough to make such a definitive statement. Give 'em a break :)

[scott_w]

Given how widely known this tree at Sycamore Gap was, you’d have to be the stupidest person alive to accidentally cut it down. There are literally no other trees nearby.

[Archelaos]

Yes. Zero probability. Just look at this pictures from the different sides of the gap:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hadrianswall-60-Syca...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Looking_Southwest_to...