RARE and threatened trees have been lost at the Val de la Mare arboretum after being damaged by Storm Ciarán.
Jersey Water said it was keeping its public reservoirs – Queen’s Valley and Val de la Mare – closed “until further notice” while a “significant” clear-up operation took place in the wake of the storm.
The water utility added that it was assessing the “full extent of the damage” before starting work on making footpaths safe again.
Alex Morel, from Jersey Trees for Life, said the “scale of devastation is far beyond what we expected”.
“We have lost some rare and threatened species of trees which will be hard to replace,” Mr Morel said. “Our priority at this point in time is to make the paths safe again for people who want to walk around the arboretum and the reservoir.”
Jersey Water chief executive Helier Smith said: “Initial inspections of the reservoirs indicate that we have very sadly lost a number of trees across both sites. Footpaths are impassable and very hazardous so we cannot stress enough how important it is for members of the public to respect the closures we have in place.
“We face a significant clear-up operation before we can consider re-opening the reservoirs. Very sadly the arboretum at Val de la Mare has been hit hard and there have been significant losses across the botanical collections, which is particularly upsetting given the important work Jersey Trees for Life has been undertaking since we committed to funding their maintenance programme earlier this year.”
A number of trees at the arboretum were brought down during stormy weather in January this year.
Jersey Water said it would review the closures on Monday and make further announcements then.
