This winter Scotland’s forestry industry will be ready and geared up to clear storm damage to forests and woodlands and help keep things moving.

Forestry Commission Scotland has pulled together an interim contingency plan that will help co-ordinate forestry sector efforts to tackle the after effects of any extreme windblow events.

The Windblow season runs from October to April and severe windstorms – where wind speed exceeds 90mph – can cause havoc when large numbers of trees are blown over.

Catherine MacCulloch, who has helped develop the plan, says: ‘Windblown trees can disrupt utility services, block public transport routes and prevent the emergency services from getting to where they need to be.

‘The disruption also extends to the movement of timber supplies, which obviously has an economic impact on the timber industry.

‘It’s therefore important that the forestry sector is prepared and ready to respond as quickly as possible to this sort of storm damage and that we keep everyone informed’.

So – what’s the plan?

Well, it’s a two step strategy.

• As soon as predicted wind speeds start reaching 90 mph, thunderbirds will be ‘Go’.
• Should a catastrophic windblow event then happen, action will focus on co-ordinating efforts within the forest industry to develop a quick and efficient response and recovery strategy.

Simon Hodge, Head of Policy for the Commission, says: ‘Severe storms may become more common with ongoing climate change. However, the frequency, scale and location of these events is unpredictable.

‘This contingency plan will mean that the forestry sector is in a permanent state of readiness  to deal with and recover from damaging storms’.

For more information visit the ‘Windblowplan’ section of the Forestry Commission website.

As news junkies, though, we’d have loved the detail of  who calls who out from where; which machines are on standby where to do what; and which forestry staff are rostered on the standby routines.

But we admit to being picky.

It all sounds good. The forethought and the preparation is admirable and to be commended. Let’s hope we don’t get the wrong sort of leaves – the sort that the UK rail authority finds awfully difficult.

As the area with the highest single percentage – by far – of Scotland’s forest estate, this measure is very welcome in Argyll.

Related Posts

• Major Forestry Commission grant for Argyll’s forest amenity development (0)
• £2.1 million Forest Holidays’ luxury log cabins open at Ardgartan (1)
• A83 closed again – the Environment Minister is sorry for us but where is the Transport Minister? (6)
• Working forest apprenticeships (0)
• Loch Striven ship layups: rolling story (217)

---

The Latest News from ForArgyll delivered via email, weekly or daily. You know it makes sense!

---

Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping | | Print This Post