June Floods 2007

As a result of the heavy rain experienced by the East Riding of Yorkshire on the 15^th and again on 25^th June 2007 the Humber Bridge Country Park found itself under several feet of water for several weeks. You can get an idea from the before and after photographs of the extent of the standing water.

6th July 2007	20th January 2008


This photo on the right was taken on 27th January 2008 following heavy rain on Monday 21st January when the area was put on flood watch by the Environment Agency. You can see how much the water table has risen within 7 days!

Back to June/July 2007 - Instead of having 3 ponds we had one large one!

The top gate to the park had to remain locked for several weeks as there was a serious danger of someone stumbling off the pathway straight into dangerously deep water.

The effects of the flooding appear to have been minimal on small mammal populations in the park. The Kids Go Wild events held in the park later on in the summer were trapping similar numbers of mammals as would normally be expected.

Between 20-30 trees have been lost - some due to the water suffocating their roots and others have fallen over due to the support usually provided by the soil being weakened by the standing water.

One very noticeable effect on plant life has been the suffocation of many ivy plants climbing up trees in the areas which remained under water for the greatest length of time.

We will have to wait until early summer to see if the flooding has had any effect on the wild orchids which we were prevented from counting last July because of all the water!

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