The Great Windstortns of 1995

This document is made available electronically by the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library as part of an ongoing digital archiving project. http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/lrl.asp (Funding for document digitization was provided, in part, by a grant from the Minnesota Historical & Cultural Heritage Program.) 0 The Great Windstortns of 1995 A Report to the ' Minnesota House of Representatives Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee February 1996 IfOEPARTllEJITOf MATIJRAl.RESOORCB Copies of this report are available from : MN Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry 500 Lafayette Road St. Paul, MN 55155-4044 Phone:(612)297-2256 Table of Contents D ~@~D\Yl~'fl1 Executive Summary................................................................. ········~···~····················l:.Y:.J············ u MAR 2 2 1996 -·· Overview 1 ctGISlATIVE REfE:.H'ENCE LIBRARY • . STATE OFFICE BUILDING Federal Disaster Declarat1on ............................................................ sf.·AA~,·M~t75ts5 ••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1 Damage Description....................................................................................................................... 2 Area Affected 2 Summary by Ownership 2 Natural Resources 3 Property 4 ~~ 5 Recreation Facilities 5 Economic Impacts .................................................................. .-....................................................... 6 General 6 County Revenues 6 Private Landowners 6 Restoration Efforts to Date............................................................................................................. 7 Damage Assessment 7 Timber Salvage 7 ( Ecosystems 7 Recreation Facilities 7 Private Lands 8 Future Forest Management Implications........................................................................................ 9 Timber Salvage and Timber Supply 9 . Forest Roads 9 Forest Regeneration 9 Wildlife Management 10 Forest Insects & Disease 10 Wildfire 11 Erosion 12 Research Opportunities 12 FEMA Hazard Mitigation Recommendations 12 Restoration and Mitigation Funding........................................ ~ ...................................................... 14 Federal Reimbursement 14 State Supplemental 14 County Suppl~mental 14 Conclusions................................................................................................................................... 15 ( . 1 Executive Summary The Events cords) and the amount of undamaged wood likely to be From July 9 to 14, 1995, a tornado and several wind storms caused harvested along with the damaged wood during salvage severe damage all across northern Minnesota. The extended operations totals about 1.5 million cords. Before the storm, duration of tremendous straight-line winds in excess of 100 miles this timber potentially might have been worth about $42 per-hour snapped, leveled and bent large expanses of trees. Small million to landowners. In general, every dollar paid to a communities and rural residents were also affected, experiencing landowner for standing timber multiplies into $25 or more in widespread power outages, blocked roads, and limited damage to local economic activity, making the $42 million of timber homes, barns, sheds and granaries. potentially worth $1 billion to local communities. As a result of the storms, the actual post-storm value of this timber is The Damages perhaps $3 million, reducing the potential worth to local communities to roughly $75 million ... a potential loss of over $900 million to local communities! • Approximately 375,000 acres of forest land were affected by the wind storms. Approximately 60 percent of the affected • Economic impacts to local landowners and communities forest land is in public ownership, with the majority of this dependent on the forest industry are significant and will be being county administered lands, and 40 percent is privately long lasting as shortages of trees of harvestable age and size owned. begin to appear in the next few years. • About 7 .2 million trees were bent, broken, or uprooted, representing a volume of approximately 750,000 cords. This is Recovery Efforts to Date enough wood to build more than 30,000 average size homes and is a little less than 20 percent of the current total annual • Since ground travel was impossible in many places, aerial statewide timber harvest. · reconnaissance began shortly after the storm. Aerial photos were taken of the entire blow-down area to evaluate the extent • Roads were heavily affected by the storm, with many miles of of the incident. More precise aerial photography was completed state highways, county, township and state forest roads entirely later in the summer when wilted foliage of damaged trees was impassable from large quantities of trees and debris on road more apparent from the air. Existing permanent forest inven surfaces. tory plots within the blow-down area will be identified and reevaluated. •Although property damages were minimal considering the magnitude of this storm, some scattered property damage did • A Governor's Executive Order was issued to allow extensions occur. of existing state timber sales, without penalty, for loggers willing to purchase storm damaged wood. Similar permission Federal Disaster Declaration has been granted by other affected land management agencies. • Timber salvage efforts are underway. Salvage logging opera • Fifteen counties and the White Earth Reservation were tions are extremely hazardous, as loggers must deal with trees declared a federal disaster area by President Clinton in August piled like jackstraws, sometimes as high as 15 feet. Salvage 1995, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency must be carried out slowly and cautiously. (FEMA) to act on the incident to provide assistance and funding. FEMA teams toured the storm damage area, reviewed • Representatives of affected agencies in the western blow-down projects and developed funding and hazard mitigation recom area, including DNR, BIA and County Land Commissioners, mendations. The Department of Public Safety took over are working together to identify priority areas for a variety of primary responsibility in late September. future forest management treatments based on a number of factors including access, site conditions and historic land use Economic Implications patterns. Treatments being considered prescribed burning, shearing, site preparation and planting, seeding, etc. • The sudden availability of storm damaged timber produced a flood of wood on the market causing timber prices to drop to • Days of cutting and hauling were required just to reopen a fraction of their normal rate. The low timber prices will main travel routes to the point that they were passable in one reduce the potential for landowners to recoup lost value. Most lane. Many additional weeks of labor were needed to restore county land departments derive a major portion of their roads to their former right-of-way width. annual budgets, commonly up to 75 percent, from sales of timber. As little as 20 percent (or less) of the damaged wood Future Forest Management Implications will likely be salvaged, resulting in a significant loss of revenue to county, state and private landowner. •Costs related to forest regeneration will be tremendous, especially in areas where timber has not been salvaged (i.e., 80 •The volume of wood damaged by the storm (i.e., 750,000 .. 11 percent or more of the damaged area). Tree planting will •Approximately $2.5 million of projects have also been require the greatest investment in these areas. Other options submitted to FEMA for consideration for funding from include shearing for increased aspen sprouting, hardwood stand $765,000 set aside for hazard mitigation. Again, the majority improvement, prescribed burning and aerial seeding where site of this funding will likely go to rural electric service projects. conditions are favorable. (e.g., burying power cables) with very little for natural resource hazard mitigation projects. However, approximately $130,000 • As a result of salvage activities, truck traffic is exceeding the of this has been earmarked for wildfire risk mitigation. levels for which forest access roads were designed and budgeted for maintenance. Erosion potential is increased and mainte •The DNR has submitted a $313,000 supplemental budget nance costs will be higher than usual in the next few years. request to the 1996 legislature for storm damage costs not Additional investments will be needed just to maintain forest reimbursable through FEMA. roads at current safety and design standards. This is especially important given the increased logging traffic on roads that are •The Department of Public Safety has also submitted a used primarily (e.g., over 95 percent on state forest roads) for $513,000 supplemental budget request for the state portion of recreation. the 25% state/local match for costs determined to be reimburs able by FEMA. The DNR has $62,000 of matching state • The large, continuous expanses of storm damaged timber, funding in this request. especially in the western blow-down area, have greatly increased the potential for catastrophic wildfires. To reduce this poten • Several counties whose forest resources were most heavily tial, additional efforts need to be made to improve access into affected by the wind storms have also developed a supplemental storm damaged areas, establish fire breaks, and reduce available budget request for consideration during the 1996 legislative fuels through continued salvage operations

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