Storm Arwen hit the UK with a devastating and tragically deadly force. It's believed such damage to lives, property and the natural environment has not been witnessed since the Great Storm of 1953.

Many areas of the North East of Scotland, and in particular Aberdeenshire, were left decimated.

It's here that Andy Russell, Greenbelt's resident contractor for Aberdeenshire and Inverness, was one of the first experts on the scene to inspect the damage and begin making affected trees safe.

"It will take months to make some of the woodlands safe again. In fact, such is the massive scale of the damage done, we expect to be clearing these trees well into January and even beyond.

"Meantime, there has been an appeal to the Scottish Government for Emergency Disaster funds to help deal with the affected trees, as well as replenishment replanting - and Greenbelt will play a key role in this important work."

"We have most of the tree works completed on our Greenbelt developments, says Andy, "and will be finishing cuts and a fence line tree at Kintore this week... once storm Barra blows out, of course!

"This leaves only Mintlaw, which is going to take some time longer as so many large, mature trees were uprooted."

Detailing why there was so much damage from Arwen, Graeme Golding, Greenbelt's Arboricultural Manager, explained: "The storm caused some trees to fail, snap or shed branches, which is a common phenomenon in stormy conditions.

"However, one specific reason for the scale of damage from Arwen was the different direction of the wind. Winds predominantly come from the south-west, however Arwen produced gusts of over 100mph from a north easterly direction.

"This change has been the main cause of the higher than average damage."

Many woodlands are not yet safe for visitors because of the risk from falling branches and hanging trees, which have been blown over and been caught on neighbouring trees. These are precarious and can fall with no warning.

Greenbelt's message is to stay safe and avoid these areas completely for now. This will also help speed up the recovery process being carried out by experts, including Andy and Graeme.