Ten months after it was brought down by vandals, the UK's beloved Sycamore Gap tree is regenerating. Eight small shoots bearing leaves have sprouted from the base of the 200-year-old sycamore's stump, NPR reports. Though only about 1.5 inches long, each shoot has "the potential to form part of a new canopy for the regenerated tree," according to the National Trust and Northumberland National Park Authority. "Our aim is to leave all eight shoots to grow for a few years—to see how they develop," adds Andrew Poad, general manager for the National Trust at Hadrian's Wall.
Experts predicted the mature tree would eventually show new growth. "But there has not been much sign of it through the growing season this year," Poad says, per the Guardian. "We began to become a bit despondent about anything happening" so "to see signs of life, just 10 months on, is astonishing." It will likely take centuries for the tree to grow to its previous height. Still, onlookers see hope in the new growth. "I am amazed and delighted that it may have a future after all," Gary Pickles, a ranger on the Hadrian's Wall footpath that runs alongside the felled tree, tells the BBC. First on the scene after the tree came down Sept. 28, he'd "consigned the tree to history," he says.
Two men charged with causing some $800,000 in damage to the tree have pleaded not guilty, per the BBC. They are to face trial in December. Poad says the next few months are "vitally important" for determining whether the shoots can successfully form a tree. In time, experts will decide whether to reduce the new growth "to a single tree" or cut all new growth to encourage more shoots in a process known as coppicing, adds Poad. Seeds taken from the tree have also sprouted dozens of seedlings being cared for at the National Trust's high-security greenhouse in Devon. They could be planted in the next two years, the BBC reports. (More United Kingdom stories.)
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