After the recent storms.

We are all back at work now after the Christmas/New Year break although all the valley rangers turned out at some point during that time.  We had quite a lot of storm damage with trees that needed attention as soon as possible.  Some were blown over and some had damaged hanging branches over footpaths.

Where we could, we dealt with them immediately but for some we needed to tape off and sign an area of potential danger.  For some we needed to call in our tree surgeons with their specialist skills.  We certainly needed them in the case of the tree that had fallen across the chapel on Derwent Island.  I had hoped that it was a job I could do with my chainsaw but it very quickly became apparent that we would have to call in the foresters.  So, on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve our foresters left friends and family and turned in to help save the chapel. 

Needs moving without doing more damage.  How?

Call in a forester who can climb an adjacent tree to fix a safety rope for himself. 

Thomas can then safely reduce the canopy with a chainsaw. 

Winching cable can now be attached.

Trunk can now be safely felled at its base.

Skilled judgement, winch, chainsaw plus a couple of wedges and tree is safely down.

We are fortunate to have staff and volunteers who will turn out at any time to deal with an emergency.  Huge thanks are due to the foresters this time.  You can read more about them and their work on their blog.

Chapel saved with minimal damage to roof and chimney stack.

We’re also having to get to grips with the storm damage from water.  We have had isolated incidents of flooding that have caused pockets of huge amounts of damage.  Catbells Terrace path has again taken a hammering with the rain.  There has been a significant wash-out of gravel that has banked up to a height of about 4 feet against a stone wall.   So we are working to restore that path and thinking about whether it might be possible to minimise a similar event in future.  

Washed out gravel  against wall.

Water damage

Storms are going to continue to occur and will reshape the landscape but we do want to keep paths usable.

Water damage to paths

Daisy here: 

It’s great, it’s really windy.  I love running in the wind.  It’s grrreat!