Loss of trees in Storm Éowyn is 'like losing a cathedral'

The scale of the devastation of Storm Éowyn is coming to light with Forest Service Northern Ireland describing it as "unprecedented".

Storm Éowyn brought winds of more than 90mph when it hit on 24 January.

Hundreds of hectares of forestry were devastated and tens of thousands of trees destroyed across forests and parks.

The Forest Service has now suspended its scheduled felling in order to clear up the storm damaged trees. More trees were damaged in the storm than would usually be felled over an entire year.

In his 40 years working among the trees, John Joe O'Boyle, the chief executive of Forest Service Northern Ireland, says he has never seen anything like it.

"The storm created large scale devastation right across the forest estate, one of the biggest damages I have seen. It's devastating," Mr O'Boyle said.

"The amount of trees that were impacted in those few hours of the storm would equate to well over one full year of timber production from our forests here.

"So we are landed with dealing with all of this, all the trees that would otherwise have been harvested and managed and dealt with over the full course of a year or more. It's a big challenge."

The Woodland Trust manages 55 sites across Northern Ireland and told BBC News NI that some of the trees which had come down were "irreplaceable".

One sweet chestnut tree felled in Mourne Park was discovered to have a staggering 334 rings indicating its age.

Dave Scott is the estate and project manager with the Woodland Trust and he said the loss of ancient trees is "irreplaceable".

"It's like losing a cathedral. You can't just rebuild it the way it was. It has a huge impact on the woodland and the ecology of the woodlands.

"We've only got 0.04% of ancient woodland left in Northern Ireland so any fragments of these ancient trees and ancient woodlands are really important.

"It supports more plants and animals than any other habitat, and these storms come through and we start losing some of these veteran trees these really old ancient trees they are irreplaceable."

The bill for the post-storm clean up is likely to run into tens of millions of pounds.

The National Trust has spent more than £300,000 so far getting its properties in Northern Ireland safe for visitors.

Gregor Fulton is the tree advisor for the National Trust in Northern Ireland. He is at Rowallane Gardens in County Down watching some of the clear up which is ongoing.

"This site was totally inaccessible you couldn't get up the main drive here it was just pure devastation. It was really upsetting for not just myself, but a lot of staff."

And the gardens at Rowallane may have been changed forever by the storm.

"Some of our rhododendrons have come up, roots and all, and we've lost them. They were collected by the original owner of the property the Reverend John Moore who collected them from around the world and they are irreplaceable.

"There are lots of specimens we have lost and it'll be difficult to replace those."

As John Joe O'Boyle surveys the damage at Gosford Forest in County Armagh, he says that there could be a positive side to the wide scale damage.

"It accelerates the opportunity to redesign. To build maybe a greater diversity of tree species within an area, because, before the storm, we had what we had but now that we are forced to fell those out of schedule it can accelerate how we make plans for redesigning."

And for anyone looking for the silver lining to all of this – will there be cheaper wood on the market?

According to Mr O'Boyle – no, because the usual tree felling schedule has been moved to accommodate the emergency felling brought forward by the storm.

"Thereabouts there'll be roughly the same amount of timber we're flowing into the markets.

"It's coming from different places, coming from different forests that require quite a lot of changes to harvesting schedules."