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How Do Hurricanes Affect Forest Resources? Lessons from Katrina and Rita

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How Do Hurricanes Affect Forest Resources? Lessons from Katrina and Rita C perspectivesO and toolsMPAS to benefit southern forest resources from the southern research stationS issue 12 How do hurricanes affect forest resources? Lessons from Katrina and Rita Evaluating Chaos...page 3 In the Danger Zone...page 8 Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers and Hurricanes. p a g e 1 1 inside... the science Lessons from Hurricanes are a fact of life in the Southern United 1 States. The Gulf Coast areas of Texas, Louisiana, and Katrina and Mississippi are especially prone to these tropical cyclones, Rita but coastal ecosystems are uniquely adapted to both by John Stanturf periodic hurricanes and fire. You could say they thrive on disturbance. Evaluating On August 28, 2005, Dennis Jacobs had just arrived at 3 a church dinner in Knoxville, TN, when he heard that Chaos Hurricane Katrina had intensified into a category 5 storm. by Bill Dockery He knew how he would be spending the next few days. Gulf Coast When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept through Gulf 5 Coast forests, the SRS Forest Inventory and Analysis Forests Hit Program provided the damage assessments Federal, State, Hard and local authorities needed to estimate the economic toll by Claire Payne on communities with significant forest resources. In The Danger Natural resource managers and landowners were 8 overwhelmed by the damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Zone Rita. Many of them didn’t have plans in place to help them by Zoë Hoyle get started on sometimes massive salvage operations, let alone come up with strategies to make their forests more resilient when future storms strike. 11 Red-cockaded Hurricanes have the potential to severely impact red- Woodpeckers cockaded woodpecker populations by damaging habitat. Artificial cavity inserts developed after Hurricane Hugo and Hurricanes make it easier for a unique species to weather major by Zoë Hoyle storms. compass—october 2008 How Much Forest Hurricane Katrina alone may have caused a loss of 40 21 million metric tons of forest carbon. That’s 20 percent Carbon is Lost of annual forest carbon sequestration capacity. SRS after a Major scientist Steve McNulty has developed new forest carbon Hurricane? sequestration equations that take into account major by Stephanie Worley Firley disturbances such as hurricanes. Winners and SRS researchers Jeffrey Prestemon and Thomas Holmes 23 have developed an economic model that describes the effects Losers, Depression of catastrophes such as hurricanes on the region’s forest and Rebound resources and the market environment in which timber by Bill Dockery producers and consumers operate. Last Trees Hundreds of thousands of urban trees were killed or 26 badly damaged by Katrina’s winds and storm surge. Standing Municipalities needed a way to assess how much money it by Zoë Hoyle would take to remove thousands of downed trees, but they also needed to know how to save those left standing. departments Experimental Forests ................... 18 Around the Station ...................... 31 Research Work Units ................... 46 Science You Can Use! .................... 29 New Products ................................... 33 briefs Hurricane Katrina ...........................2 Hurricane Rita ................................. 12 What Gulfport Lost......................24 The Value of Taking Inventory ....6 Shelter From the Storm ............. 14 Strike While the Quick Guide to Salvage .............. 10 How Fish Fare .................................... 17 Harm is Hot ........................................ 28 A Simple Solution, But Not That Why Longleaf? .................................. 20 Easy ........................................................... 11 Cover photo: When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept through in fall 2005, they left widespread damage to Gulf Coast forest resources. (Photo by Patrick Hesp, Louisiana State University Hurricane Katrina and Rita Clearinghouse Cooperative) Email: [email protected], [email protected] Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for Telephone: 828-257-4388 communication of program information (Braille, large print, C OMPASS Editors: Zoë Hoyle, Science Writer, and Claire Payne, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at Technical Information Specialist (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). Art Director: Rodney Kindlund Science You Can Use! Contributing SDG Staff Writers: Carol Whitlock and Stevin To file a complaint of discrimination, write to USDA, Westcott Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, Station Director: Jim Reaves SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call (800) 795- October 2008 — Issue 12 3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TDD). USDA is an equal The mission of the Southern Research Station is to create opportunity provider and employer. perspectives and tools to benefit southern forest resources the science and technology needed to sustain and enhance southern forest ecosystems and the benefits The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for COMPASS is published by the Science Delivery Group they provide. reader information and does not imply endorsement (SDG) of the Southern Research Station (SRS), Forest by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. As part of the The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits service. Nation’s largest forestry research organization—Forest discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis Service Research and Development—SRS serves 13 of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where The opinions and recommendations offered by guest Southern States and beyond. The Station’s 130 scientists applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental authors and interviewees are not necessarily those of the work at more than 20 units located across the region status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service, or the at Federal laboratories, universities, and experimental political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an Southern Research Station. forests. individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) ISSN: 1931-4906 Future issues can be obtained by returning the postcard included in this issue. Printed on recycled paper Printed with soy ink www.srs.fs.usda.gov An American chestnut tree in West Salem, WI, planted outside the chestnut’s natural range in the early 1900s by settlers. Under the tree are, from left: TACF president and CEO Marshal Case, Dr. Cameron Gundersen, and Bruce Gabel. (Photo courtesy of Daphne Van Schaick) With increased hurricane activity expected for the next 10 to 40 years, yearly damage to forests along the Gulf Coast could become the norm. (Photo by Peter L. Lorio, U.S. Forest Service, Bugwood.org) compass—october 2008 Lessons From Katrina and Rita by John Stanturf urricanes are a fact of life in The estimated wind damage from 2005 hurricanes, or to offer analysis of Hthe Southern United States. The Katrina and Rita to forest resources social systems. Our focus on hurricane Gulf Coast areas of Texas, Louisiana, was between $2 and $3 billion, effects on forest resources may seem and Mississippi are especially prone with more than 5.5 million acres of at first somewhat narrow, but we to these tropical cyclones, but coastal timberland affected in the States of believe that the importance of forests ecosystems are uniquely adapted to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and lies not only in timber values, but both periodic hurricanes and fire. You Alabama. Although financial estimates also in the innumerable “ecosystem could say they thrive on disturbance. of timber losses provide an incomplete services” forests provide—from habitat Unfortunately, cities and towns along estimate of impacts, there is no doubt for myriad species, to places for the Gulf Coast—and the people that effects from the hurricanes people to rest and recreate, to carbon who live in them—have proven to will linger for years to come. Many storage banks to offset climate change, be less resilient when it comes to managers and landowners were to alternative sources of energy. weathering huge storms, as most caught unprepared to salvage timber In this issue, we’ll go into detail recently shown when Hurricane Ike quickly enough to recover value and about the steps landowners and tore through Galveston, TX. The past prevent further damage from insects, homeowners can take to manage 10 hurricane seasons have been the invasive plants, and rot. Managing storm damage to their trees. We’ll look most active on record. The consensus salvage while maintaining or at how Katrina affected a long-term among climatologists is that increased recovering ecological values is another experiment on an experimental forest hurricane activity could persist for issue few land managers had planned in Mississippi, including findings that another 10 to 40 years. When you for. longleaf pine—once the dominant add global climate change predictions Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tree species in coastal areas—is to the mix, yearly damage from provided an opportunity to examine surprisingly hurricane-resistant when hurricanes could become the norm forest management objectives and compared to other pine species. We’ll for the Gulf Coast rather than periodic how they could be used to reduce see how what we’ve learned from occurrences. vulnerability to damage from future previous hurricanes came into play In August and September 2005, storms and to provide managers with when Rita threatened
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