30th Anniversary

[Andy Clark]

It'll be 30 years this coming Sunday since most of us in the Arboriculture world, Contractors/Consultants alike, had our teeth cut and our passions for what we do spawned in the wake of "The Great Storm" of 1987.

 

We often forget just how BIG an impact the events of the night of 15th October had on what we all now know and love to be the modern UK Arb industry....

There is no doubt that without the Great Storm of '87 our industry would be an extremely different place to be, ...and work, than to what it is today, and for that, I personally believe we should all be grateful.

 

120+mph winds, 20+ dead, several hundred thousand without power, and more than 15 million trees felled.... along with the resulting impacts to infrastructure, the transport system and the economy that that level of devastation brings.

 

So for those of us that remember the night, or the dawn of the next day, or for those who have followed the path ever since, I challenge you... remember your roots, embrace your origins, and give thanks to the catastrophe from whence you were spawned...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

 

 

[David Humphries]

Good thread Andy, will be interesting to hear others memories.

 

Anniversaries are weird things aren't they, certainly make you ponder on your own involvement but equally will mean jack to a large number of those in the industry who might not have even been born by then. There hasn't really been any weather events in the UK since (accept perhaps the one at the begging on the nineties) that have been anywhere near as devastating as the 'great storm'

 

On reflection,  (I was at the end of a Hort apprentice at the time) that storm was the single thing that led to my career in Arboriculture. Joining up the tree team and helping to clear up the devastation for months afterwards. We had huge fires going in our car parks for weeks (wonder what Sadiq Khan would have said about that) that ourselves and our neighbouring local authorities used to get shot of the timber. Such a waste.

 

I was talking to a well known consultant in the south recently who was retelling how he went from a three man outfit pre-storm, to 15 guys over the storm clear up and the next couple of years, then business just dried up as home/land owners just didn't have the money to spend on trees, so he wound down the gangs and went in to consultancy.

 

This particular anniversary led me to think about and write an article recently on the effect of the storm on Ancient and veteran trees, I probably wouldn't have thought about it had the anniversary not been coming up.

 

 

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

My old boss said it ruined the industry (from his viewpoint at least) before the storm  tree climbing was a niche skill and rates reflected that.

 

He was a negative miserable sod anyway, so who knows?

Edited October 14, 2017 by Mick Dempsey

[Gray git]

Wasn't old enough to really care at the time but how different would the approach to dealing with the problems caused be now, would all the beurocrasy we deal with as a given normality now go out the window so we could just deal with it or would every site need an induction, rams and environmental impact assessment. (this isn't a did at those just thinking out loud)
The firewood market would take a hammering with the availability of downed timber needing to be shifted.
I guess with chippers being far more widely available big fires would be a lot less likely and more of the arisings would be reclaimed as a result.
I'd also like to see how some people would cope with the transport delays in today's must get there now society as I've seen 1st hand the anger and frustration a single tree blocking a road causes to someone wanting to be past.

[Mick Dempsey]

As I recall (I was 23 at the time) the transport frustration was negligible (though the delays were real and prolonged)

 

 

 

Such was the devastation that people just accepted and got on with it, there was little or no moaning just awe then getting on with it. 

Edited October 14, 2017 by Mick Dempsey

[sean]

This looks an interesting book on the devastation to the landscape.

[Stubby]

I remember , I was 34 . l woke up , looked at the sky line behind West Dean and , to be honest , I cried a bit .