Green Horizons

Weather experts call them derechos (pronounced ‘deh- RAY-cho’). Lay people call them land hurricanes. One forest landowner whose forest was obliterated in the massive, May 8th windstorm called it “the biggest heartache of my whole life.”

The derecho (which means ‘direct’ or straight ahead’ in Spanish) started in southeastern Kansas before dawn and then raced across the Missouri Ozarks before finally ending in southern Illinois. The most severe damage was a 90-mile-long corridor beginning southeast of Montauk State Park in southeastern Dent County and running east through northern Bollinger County. Width of the corridor ranged from 6 to 15 miles. Two well-defined tornado tracks were also found to the south of the main event in Shannon County.

Because the storm track went through the sparsely populated Ozarks, news reports of the damage were light and centered on the Fredericktown area. It was not until a week later, as state and Federal forestry officials began piecing together reports from field offices that the true magnitude of the destruction began to sink in.

Analysts with the U.S. Geological Survey in Rolla, Mo., compared satellite images taken before and after the storm and have initially estimated more than 113,000 acres of forested sustained “significant to severe damage.” That means on those acres at least 50 percent of the forest canopy has been lost; either through trunk breakage or complete toppling of the tree.

Using an average 3,600 board feet/acre (FIA data from 20 most affected counties) and assuming 50 percent of the trees are damaged, this would equal 204 million board feet of damaged timber. This figure should be viewed as conservative since the assessment did not detect lightly damaged areas. The Missouri Forest Products Association valued this moderate to severe damage at $12 million.

What is Being Done?
Since the storm, state and Federal resources have been assisting county governments and rural communities restore public safety by clearing debris so utility crews can safely do their job. They also have been hard at work re-opening campgrounds and trails.

Salvage operations have begun on both public and private forest land. The USDA NRCS was able to reallocate $1 million dollars of unused EQIP money to assist private forest landowners in salvaging their timber. However, the sign-up period for those funds has already ended due to the upcoming end of the Federal fiscal year (Sept. 30) and the time required to process applications. State agencies would love to be in a position to financially assist private landowners, but they have no discretionary funds available and the legislature has not appropriated any emergency funding to date.

Forest landowners are encouraged to keep this issue fresh in the minds of their state and Federal congressional delegations to commit dollars to salvage operations in the coming fiscal year.

What Can Affected Landowners Do?
The damage caused by this storm raises a world of questions. And if you do not consider the toppling of complete trees, this weather event is comparable to the ice storms landowners across Missouri have experienced over the past few years.

So, what can you do if you find yourself staring out across what you might now consider a wasteland? We will start with two obvious pieces of advice and in future issues of Green Horizons we will address some of the less obvious and longer-term challenges that forest landowners will face. If you have specific questions you would like to see us tackle in this “After the Storm” series, feel free to call, write or email us here at GH.

Be Safe
First and foremost, be safe. No tree, forest or special place in your forest is worth your life. Leaning trees, tree tops or entire trees ‘hung up’ in neighboring trees, and trees bent over, have the potential to release great amounts of energy in very unpredictable ways… even when ‘experienced’ loggers go to cutting on them. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and leave the salvage operation to professionals.

Here is one that I would not have thought of, except for the fact that I witnessed it firsthand. While surveying the damage along the entrance road into the Mark Twain National Forest’s Sutton’s Bluff campground, out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement. As I turned, a 20-inch red oak simply fell over… on a clear day… and no wind. I suspect that a lot of trees that are still standing have had their root systems compromised. So, even if your forest only sustained light to moderate damage you might want to turn up the gain on your personal safety radar if you venture out, especially on rainy and windy days.

Be Patient
With over 200 million board feet of timber on the ground, loggers will be in short supply… very short supply. Couple that with depressed timber markets and it is going to be difficult to move this wood.

Professional foresters and loggers estimate that we have 12 to 18 months to salvage what material can be salvaged safely. So, there is time.

	Pioneer Forest sustained major damage across thousands of its acres. This stand near Shannondale, south of Salem, Mo., along Hwy. 19 shows the storm gave no preference for breaking off or blowing over 20”+ diameter oak trees as well as pine.
Privately owned forest north of Lesterville on Hwy. 49. Adding insult to injury is the fact that what young trees were not destroyed might not ever regain their upright growth patterns.
	Cemetery on the southern outskirts of Fredericktown, Mo. Thousands of volunteers descended upon rural communities throughout the eastern Ozarks, clearing roads, restoring power and removing trees from houses. Despite a vigorous root system, this old-growth pine was no match for Mother Nature.
The USDA Forest Service campground at Sutton’s Bluff northeast of Centerville on Hwy. 49 will never look the same in our lifetime. Forest landowners will be dealing with increased wildfire threats and regeneration problems for years to come.