FEATURE ARTICLES Photos, photos, photos and forms. It’s also important that your on-ground actions can be translated to your off-ground actions afterwards. Make sure you get the photos of ‘before, during and after’ as well as keeping a record of what was removed from where. It’s a lot easier to take a photo and fill out a deaccession form at the time you’re removing specimens than it is days, weeks or months after the event. Believe it or not, the photos also provide a great way to celebrate the team’s success after the clean-up has finished, providing a great visual reminder of their efforts.
Before’ and ‘after’ images of the devastation and clean-up provides a tangible reminder of the recovery work. Photo: R. Brown
Recovery Recovery can take time and exactly what needs to happen depends entirely on the event. However, it’s likely that it will take several rounds of assessment, planning and action to get the results you’re after. It might mean replacing longstanding specimens that didn’t survive, it might mean rebuilding damaged infrastructure or it might mean undertaking a critical review of a whole collection. Whatever it is, it’s important to learn from the experience so as to develop better resistance and improve your planning for future events. Recovery has a human aspect to it, too. The workload, the conditions, the stress and the loss can push teams or people to breaking point so once the worst is over take the time to stop, reflect and appreciate all the effort that went into the response. Tropical Cyclone Debbie was over a year ago now but in some ways we are still recovering. Some specimens are yet to be replaced, and we’ve only just got around to removing a large Brachychiton compactus that developed crown rot as a result of the cyclone.
THE BOTANIC GARDENer | ISS 50 JUNE 2018
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