Next Instalment Of Forest Diary

Forest Diary, Keeping safe in windy woods (30/1/2012)

"We’ve had a particularly blustery start to the New Year and, with winds up to 90mph passing through the New Forest at the beginning of January, the Forestry Commission saw a number of trees uprooted or significantly damaged by the storms. Around 20 or so of these trees fell or dropped branches across some of our major roads, forest tracks and trails. We even had a perfectly healthy tree blow onto the railway line that passes through the Forest.

In order to keep our visitors as safe as possible, the Forestry Commission team is constantly out in the forest on the look out for those trees that pose most risk. Although we can’t always know which trees are likely to be damaged in strong winds, what we can do is carry out an annual Tree Safety Survey across the forest. This helps to identify any foreseeable issues with trees that have the potential to cause damage to people or property. All trees will fall eventually, at the end of their life, but what we’re looking for are trees that show signs of failing prematurely due to waterlogging, physical damage and disease.

To conduct the survey we split the New Forest into three zones; zone one includes all the trees growing along railways, major A roads, popular visitor sites and car parks; zone two encompasses less busy roads and visitor spots and finally, zone three is the wider woodland where there is minimal risk to visitors should a tree be damaged. We survey zone one every year and zone two once every five years. We don’t routinely survey zone three as the trees in these zones aren’t likely to damage life and property if they fail.

During the survey, our Recreation Rangers are responsible for checking areas that visitors commonly use such as trails and cycle routes. Our Works Supervisors will survey trees along roadsides and our Keepers have responsibility for the forest boundaries and around private properties. They’ll each log and record any potential issues that they spot and then it’s my job to collate and prioritise all of this information, drawing up a programme to get the work carried out.

We carry out the minimum amount of work to make the tree safe. However, if a tree is a potential danger to road users or visitors, we’ll prune it to eliminate any hazards and if it’s severely damaged and unlikely to uphold any harsh weather conditions, the Forestry Commission will fell it. Once felled, the wood is often put to good use – selling it to local merchants for fire wood is a common path for trees felled along the roadside.  

If the weather looks set to change again and strong winds and gales are forecast, make sure you wait until the winds die down if you’re thinking about heading out into the New Forest. Avoid sitting under or climbing on any branches that have been freshly snapped or broken and keep an eye out for any dangers. If you see a tree that has been blown over in the wind, you can report it to the Forestry Commission by calling 023 8028 3141             and we’ll make sure we get out to it as soon as it’s safe to do so.

For more information about the New Forest, visit www.forestry.gov.uk/newforest.
Richard Burke, South Walk Forester