Scottish Forestry has confirmed that the Windblow Contingency Plan has been stood down in Scotland.
The decision was taken after Scottish Forestry’s local staff gauged initial feedback from woodland owners and the forestry industry on damage to forests after Storm Eowyn.
The consistent message is that there has not been damage to forests on a very large scale, and appears to be considerably smaller than the damage seen after Storm Arwen in 2021.
Although there are many individual trees down, and in some places pockets of forest affected, the overall area involved does not need co-ordinated national action.
Local support will continue to be available through Scottish Forestry for felling permissions, which are needed for windblow, and other advice if required.
Jason Hubert, Scottish Forestry’s Head of Sector Development said:
“It looks like we escaped the worst of Storm Eowyn. Feedback has indicated that although some areas are affected, there’s no large-scale damage to forests, certainly nowhere on the scale that we witnessed with Storm Arwen.
“We are hearing of larger specimen trees that have been blown over or snapped and as a result there appears to be more windblow found in towns and cities than in previous storms.
“Although the winds were exceptionally strong, we believe that the direction of wind played a huge part in reducing the damage. Our forests and woodlands are well used to south westerly winds and the root structures are therefore quite resistant. The age and diversity of woodland structures may also have helped lessen the damage.”
Scottish Forestry plans to meet with Confor and Forestry and Land Scotland to check whether any lessons can be learned from handling the recent storm.
However, Scottish Forestry is advising all woodland owners to be very proactive in the management of storm damaged trees.
Recently windblown, snapped, dying and sawn trees are particularly susceptible to infestation with tree pests and diseases, particularly damaging bark beetles like Ips typographus. Therefore, action to manage storm damage trees is being strongly advised on tree health grounds.
Whilst many woodland owners, local authorities and other organisations carry out their clean-up operations, the public are reminded to take extra care when visiting forests and pay attention to any local signage. Clearing wind blown trees can be very hazardous and should only be attempted by full trained people.
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