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The Bahamas National Trust wishes to note its concern for Bahami-ans who have suffered loss of property and personal belongings in the Islands affected by Hurricane Irene a category 3 hurricane as it traveled the length of the Bahamas Chain August 25 and 26. The BNT is especially relieved that there was no life was lost in this dangerous storm.

According to Eric Carey, BNT Executive Director The storm im-pacted almost all of the national parks, with the exception of the Andros National Parks which were unaffected. Despite the fact the storm passed through many of the National Parks, the Parks suf-fered minimal damage from Hurricane Irene.

In New Providence, The Retreat, headquarters of the BNT, suf-fered downed trees and palms but there were was no damage to buildings and physical structures. “Several fairly large trees have unfortunately been lost, “ reported Lynn Gape, Dep-uty Executive Director , however all of the rare palms withstood the storm and the palms that came down are salvage-able . “ Trails at The Reterat will remain closed until the Trust has completed clean-up and restoration of the downed trees and palms. Board walks and viewing platforms at Bonefish Pond and Harrold and Wilson Ponds National Parks escaped damage and the Primeval Forest National Park suffered minimal impact from the storm.

The Leon Levy Preserve in Eleuthera was impacted with newly planted trees coming down and lots of limbs and trees down on the paths. Almost of all the newly planted downed trees have been re-erected and replanted as Preserve staff worked through the weekend to replant the trees. Staff from the Levy Preserve showed great community spirit working in assisting the community in Governor’s Harbour with hurricane cleanup. They provided assistance to the Haynes Library cutting up and removing large Casuarina trees that came down in the storm.

At the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, Andrew Kriz, Park Administrator , reported little or no damage to buildings at the headquarters. All park vessels survived the storm, but unfortunately the fuel dock for the park was badly damaged. In Inagua, Hurricane Irene, passed 60 miles to the NE of the island , and experienced tropical storm force winds of ap-proximately 40 mph with gusts of up to 60 mph. According to Glenn Bannister, Past Presidenf of the BNT, Pond Man-agement Personnel checked the entire salt evaporator network and did not see one dead bird. Warden Henry Nixon also reported that the storm seemed not to have affected the birdlife of Inagua adversely.

In Abaco , Warden David Knowles is coordinating with Caroline Stahala, parrot biologist, who is just finishing up her field season on Abaco , a rapid assessment of the Abaco National Park and the immediate impact on the Bahama Par-rots. Ms. Stahala is being assisted by Deputy Park Warden Marcus Davis. Ms. Stahala’s initial report indicates that she is fairly confident that the population survived the storm with minimum mortality. She was actively monitoring several nests prior to t he passage of Irene and visted the nests after the storm and found that the fledglings were still alive and getting ready to leave the nest. Ms. Stahala will be preparing a comprehensive assessment to provide a better understanding of the overall impact of the storm on the Abaco Parrot population.

In Grand Bahama, staff at the Lucayan National Park and Rand Nature Centre reported that all was well at their loca-tions. There was no structural damage to any of the buildings , gazebos and boardwalks. There were some downed trees at both locations but staff are already hard at work cleaning up and these loca-tions will not have to be closed to the visiting public.

“The BNT feels very fortunate to have weathered the storm with minimal damage” said Neil McKinney, President of the BNT.

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