Disconsolate

Edge Hill Road at the entrance to my preserve after the ice storm

My preserve was smack dab in the center of the recent Mid-Atlantic ice storm that caused 715,000 customers in the counties surrounding Philadelphia to lose electric power for days on end.  After an 8-inch snowfall Tuesday night into Wednesday morning (February 4-5), the precipitation changed to sleet, which coated everything and caused the havoc.  Our electric power went off at 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, and power was not restored until Sunday afternoon, February 9.  We were without heat, water, and lights for 105 hours.

Kali and I "camped out" in the living room near the wood stove for the duration.  We brought the two cats (who don't like one another) into the room with us, along with our parrot (in his cage, of course).  We all got as close to the stove as we dared.  Despite our tribulations, though, we had it better than many folks in the area because at least we had a stove and firewood; many other customers just shivered in their houses, some of which got down very near freezing day after day.

This storm was second only to Hurricane Sandy (August 2012) in terms of the number of electric customers affected.  Utility crews from all over the eastern United States and eastern Canada descended onto us in an effort to restore power.  Our service was restored by a crew from Georgia Power (who had just come from their own ice storm nightmare two weeks ago).

Some of the non-native firs and spruces in the preserve held up fairly well to snow cover

A white pine just inside our driveway that, like most of the white pines on the property, suffered many broken limbs

Having been largely housebound for nearly five days, Kali and I decided to walk two of the trails in the preserve on Sunday afternoon after the power was restored to get an idea of the damage.  It wasn't a pleasant walk because the snow was covered by a sheet of ice, which made walking very difficult.  In addition, the trails were interrupted end to end by downed branches, so we had to detour repeatedly.

A trail runs down the center of this allee of white pines

Kali detouring around a fallen tree blocking the trail

Though there was a lot of damage, whole topped trees like the fir in the image above were actually pretty uncommon - certainly far less common than they were in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  Most of the woody debris consisted of large branches and limbs that cracked off the canopy of the trees, but the majority of the trees themselves were spared.

If storms like Hurricane Sandy and this ice storm continue to strike the preserve with regularity, there won't be anything left to preserve.  The trees will be damaged or killed, and then sunlight will stream into the woods and allow invasive vines to overwhelm the forest.  It's all very discouraging.