Northants tornado damage

After a 'mini tornado' swept through parts of Northamptonshire at speed, felling and uprooting trees in its wake, it's taken the last two weeks for our reserves team to clear up across a swathe of nature reserves

It's taken two weeks and counting for our reserves team in Northamptonshire to clear up in the aftermath of storm damage when a swathe of the county was hit by exceptionally strong winds, described by those who witnessed it as being ‘like a tornado’ during a destructive 20 minutes on Sunday 31 October.

The Trust received a flurry of emails and calls reporting blocked paths and fallen trees at a number of reserves. Our reserves team cancelled all other work, including volunteer work parties, and anyone available who could use a chainsaw set out to clear paths, mend fences and make trees safe. These included Lings Wood, Nene Wetlands and Summer Leys initially, with work also at Old Sulehay, Short Wood, Southwick Wood and Glapthorn Cow Pastures.

Ian Wilson on turkey oak, by Ian Hilbert

The Trust's tool store ended up with a huge sweet chestnut balanced across the top of it, see image above, and reserves officer Ian Wilson demonstrated his balancing skills on a turkey oak which was completely uprooted, left. With a trunk of more than a metre in diameter, the tree was assessed as being only about 82 years old. Sometimes when trees blow over there is a danger that they may try to right themselves, so this stump was winched into the position shown, to fill the root hole, and leaving it safe.

Reserves officer Ian Hilbert said: “Our reserves team carry out practical habitat management on our nature reserves, most of the time this is for the benefit of wildlife – but in this instance the last two weeks have been for public access and amenity. It’s been very heart warming to speak to walkers using the reserves who have been uniformly grateful and supportive about what we are doing.”