Stormy weather

Who lives in a house like this..see below!

Rain stopped play, { last weeks ranger duties},  but back in play this week to face the clean up of the storm damaged trees. Started in the rain with Martin at Crickley hill where urgent action was needed to make safe 2 badly damaged beech trees one of which had one of its huge limbs sheared off. Both trees were close to public paths so needed to be sorted quickly even though its never good to work in the wet! Needed to use the landrover winch to pull the heavy branch free followed by some careful chain sawing and then some fancy rope work to pull down some branches which were precariously balanced high up in the surviving part of the tree.  On the way to the next task we discovered a recently fallen ash tree which needed to be dealt with and removed from one of the woodland paths. While doing an on the spot survey of Crickley trees, prompted by the stormy April weather , we squeezed in some clearing work around two youngish Oak trees hopefully allowing their growth to proceed more successfully. We finally managed to get around to inspecting a more mature Oak tree Martin was concerned about. Those concerns were well founded as the Oak tree buttresses were lifted significantly off the ground. Given this and the Oak's proximity to a main path Martin sadly decided the tree needed to be pulled down.  Again some smart work with the winch and chainsaw saw the tree made safe and the area suitably cleared. Some day with no casualties and an interesting inquiry by a Sculptor who was seeking to source a sizeable piece [2 tons +] of wood for an upcoming project.

Over dozen larch blown down in April storms

Casualties :Large Beech and  Horse chestnut {background}

At last some dry weather working with Mike at Sherborne. Started the day with an inspection of the blue tractor now out of action because.. 'a robin has its nest in the engine compartment !' aint nature marvellous . Surprisingly the morning was spent blocking and splitting in the nursery , it seems the demand for wood continues whilst the coldish weather remains. Had to work harder on the splitting the sometimes green and not so seasoned wood, Mike suffered my moans stoically. The afternoon saw us on our way to Ragged Copse to deal with some of the fallen larch and to repair any of the damaged new ash saplings which suffered collatoral damage. Amazingly they were few in number. Sadly two mature broadleaves were badly damaged by the storms over the weekend. The large Beech uprooted was suffering from deceased roots and the Horse chestnut losing a huge branch limb because of 'unbalanced' growth. So the wet April and strong winds tipped the balance! So for both Martin and Mike extra work plus the need to re-inspect vulnerable trees which although not yet damaged may be at greater risk to the public or farmers.