Cleaning up after Bert and Darragh
How our Estates team dealt with the winter storms
We have hopefully put the storm season behind us and the Spring Equinox on March 20 heralds brighter and calmer weather ahead.
But it doesn’t seem that long ago that we endured a winter with four named storms hitting southern England – two of which had an impact in the Fairford and Slimbridge areas of Gloucestershire and Little Dalby, Leicestershire, affecting The Ernest Cook Trust’s estates.
Our staff at Fairford, Hatherop, Barnsley, Filkins, Slimbridge and Little Dalby all deserve great credit for their hard work during and after Storms Bert (November 22-25) and Storm Darragh (December 6-7).
High winds and heavy rain brought down trees and caused some flooding but staff, supported by tenants and some of our regular contractors, went above and beyond their day-to-day responsibilities to clear vital roads and rights of way and protect vulnerable areas from being inundated by floodwater.
Joe, our Conservation & Woodland Manager, said the storms coming so close together in late November and early December put significant pressure on staff, but everyone responded magnificently to tackle the worst of the damage and keep the estates and the wider communities working. Joe said:
Everyone put in a fantastic effort after Storm Bert struck. It was absolutely pouring with rain, we had trees down on the road coming into Quenington. The road turned into a river while we were trying to work on it.
He continued, “Two weeks later our Estates team were back doing the same difficult jobs when Storm Darragh arrived, which was at a weekend. I was stranded in Scotland – but the team, including our Director of Land, Property and Commercial Development, Michael, turned out deal with fallen trees, working until it was dark.”
Michael and Joe paid tribute to Estate team, farm tenants and contractors, including The Cotswold Group and Arboreal, who regularly work across The Ernest Cook Trust’s Home Estates.
At Slimbridge, Estate Forester Lee, said Storm Darragh caused the greatest damage with around 50 major trees brought down in pockets across the Estate. He said a long-running programme of safety management reduced the loss of trees alongside roads and rights of way but there were still significant problems caused by the high winds.
The Estate team and tenants at Slimbridge monitored the area during the storm and moved in to begin the major clear-up once the winds had died down. He said the loss of mature trees was unfortunate – but the timber would be put to good use.
“We’ve got two timber stacks – one for the best quality trees that are going for milling and the other for chipwood,” Lee said.
It is quite surprising just how many trees were felled in such a short time by the storm. We lost about 50 nice trees that could have stayed in the landscape for a long time.
At Little Dalby, Michael, our Estate Woodsman & Maintenance Worker, said the Leicestershire Estate, near Melton Mowbray, got off more lightly than many other areas during Storm Darragh.
“We were really, really lucky because of the direction of the wind and the fact we are that bit further north. We had a few trees down but nothing that gave us any real problems.”
But he said proactive management of trees on the Little Dalby Estate over many years, particularly those near roads and rights of way, had paid dividends.
Because of the management that we have done we probably haven’t suffered as badly as some other areas.
As the land has been drying out through March farm tenants and the Estates team have been continuing to deal with fallen trees on farmland wherever the land is dry enough to work on without damaging the soil structure.
You can never be sure when we will next face heavy rain or high winds, but it is reassuring, for our estates and the communities around them, that our staff, tenants and partners, are ready to do their bit.
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