Crisis Management: Communication and Collaboration Key to Overcoming Windstorm Eowin
“Crisis management is about communication and collaboration,” emphasized Christoph Hartebrodt during the recent FoRISK workshop addressing the aftermath of Windstorm Eowin. Last week, the FoRISK Secretariat visited Dublin to support the Irish Department for Agriculture, Food and Marine in tackling the severe windstorm that struck on January 24th, affecting approximately 24,000 hectares of forests—equivalent to 2.5 years of annual cuts. The damage was evenly split between public and private ownership.
Our initial meeting with the Windblow Task Force took place in early April, where we exchanged experiences and clarified the situation with the affected parties. For more details, you can read our previous news item here.
On May 7th, Silvia Abruscato, FoRISK Secretariat coordinator, and Christoph Hartebrodt, a renowned crisis management expert from the Forest Research Institute Baden Württemberg (FVA), moderated a comprehensive workshop. The event brought together around 25 stakeholders, including representatives from industries, sawmills, farmers, owners, contractors, timber associations, the private sector, the Ministry, state-owned companies, and other national authorities.
The workshop began with participants familiarizing themselves with the objectives, which included optimizing action timing, staff mobilization, training, information flow, licensing processes, health and safety, confidence in forestry, environmental protection, economic recovery, coordination capacity, cooperation, and effective crisis management. These goals were tailored to the Irish context and visually summarized in a step-by-step landscape process to guide decision-making from harvesting to selling.
Participants identified key bottlenecks, such as contractor recruitment capacity and the training of owners, harvesters, and foresters. The discussion then focused on the most relevant activities to address these issues, ranging from driver’s capacity and work permits to staff training, public road access, group certification, proactive communication products, and a well-funded reconstruction scheme. Participants elaborated on these top activities, which will be further developed in the coming months.
The workshop concluded with the identification of approximately ten key activities, thoroughly elaborated by participants, which will serve as a solid foundation for the Irish dynamic action plan to face the windstorm. The Ministry, with the support of our FoRISK team, is currently compiling the workshop results into a concise report.
Thanks to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of Ireland for the pictures, video, and co-organization of this workshop. We hope to keep working together towards a joint strategy to face future windstorm events better.