EXTREME WEATHER
STORM ARWEN THE AFTERMATH Andy Leitch reflects on the aftermath of Storm Arwen and how the supply chain is collaborating across both the public and private sector to ensure the windblow is dealt with safely and effectively to minimise impact on growers and processors.
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n 26/27 November 2021, Storm Arwen caused significant damage and disruption in many communities mainly along the east coast of Scotland and northeast England. Sadly, it even resulted in loss of life. Large numbers of homes were without power and water for many days, with utilities companies, first responders and many from the forest industry working tirelessly together to ensure these services were returned as soon as possible. Once these issues had been resolved we could focus on the damage to forests and woodlands. The core areas that have been badly affected by the windblow are Aberdeen shire, Angus Glens and Scottish Borders, but also Perthshire, Dumfries,
Northumbria and Cumbria, with some estates reporting catastrophic losses of almost their entire forest holdings setting back generations of forest management.
Collaborative response in forestry and timber sector Confor immediately engaged with its members and the relevant public sector agencies to assess the extent of the damage to the woodland estate, to bring together the wood supply chain to focus on ensuring that the affected woodlands can be harvested safely, efficiently, and expediently. This has resulted in two regional windblow meetings covering northeast Scotland and south Scotland/north England, comprising of representatives from across the supply chain and public sector agencies with the initial aim to: • improve information on species, treesize, proportion of snap and certification. • share guidance and target clear messages to those outwith the mainstream forestry sector particularly farmers and estate woodland owners. • encourage co-ordination throughout the sector including liaison with local authorities on scale and intensity of local transport issues. • develop a national approach if necessary. The northeast group met before Christmas and the south Scotland/north England group met on the 14 January. There are plans to hold a follow-up meeting on the 27 January to focus on priority issues.
PLANNING THE NEXT STEPS Growers will be considering significant additional costs associated with restocking, including up righting root plates, repairing drainage systems and boundary fences. They will also be considering cultivation techniques and species choice taking into account site conditions, climate change predictions and any specific strategic goals for the site. Scientists suggest that extreme weather events, such as Storm Arwen, will increase because of climate change, therefore it is important that foresters take this opportunity to learn lessons from the experience of managing the aftermath of this windblow, and where possible, implement measure to mitigate the impact of such future events. Read more about future-proofing silviculture on page 52.
6 FORESTRY & TIMBER NEWS • February 2022
ASSESSING AND VALIDATING THE WINDBLOW Utilising New Technologies for Damage Assessment Fortunately, windblow of this scale doesn’t happen very often; for those of us who have been involved previously will remember how difficult it is to get safe access to assess the scale of damage, even when we had armies of foresters, foremen and forestry squads to mobilise. Instead, we now have access to analysis of remote sensing data carried out by Forest Research which has provided an early estimate of the extent of the damage which can be mapped quickly. The map is based on a mix of radar and optical satellite data and records the presence of windblow rather than a perfect boundary. The analysis improves with time as more satellite data becomes available and as weather conditions allow, optical imagery enhances the radar data. The initial map was produced within two weeks of the storm and aimed to pick up on the epicentres of areas of windthrow. The map is being updated and each subsequent version will improve the boundaries
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