Storm Damage

The damage caused by Storm Arwen on Saturday is extensive and will take weeks to clear away. At the top of the green trail there is an area of windblown trees that is a giant tangle of branches, trunks and giant root plates.

The trees that have succumbed to the gale force winds are not all in one place; they are scattered around the whole reserve making the clean up operation extremely difficult. Staff and volunteers began 'phase 1' of the tidying operation yesterday by carefully removing dangerous hanging trees with a winch. Today, the second phase was underway as several large root plates were dropped back into place where possible.

Some of the fallen trees were then dressed and cut up into manageable chunks so that the wood could be moved and the paths were cleared of debris. As the woodland is inaccessible the larger pieces of timber were piled into habitat piles. Brash was removed as if left it will become a fire hazard in the summer months.

It is important to remove the wood from its 'landing place' as much of it is laying on wildflower banks like the one shown here.

On the boundary with the training area some of the root plates had lifted a post and wire fence a few metres into the air! (The 'before' photo')...

This was a priority to repair to prevent the neighbouring sheep from wandering into the woodland. 

After lunch, the team replaced some of the root plates and fixed the fence.  As you can see from the 'after photo' there is still a lot of work to do!

Many thanks to all who helped out today and especially to Ian for all of his winching and chainsawing!