Katrina rated largest U.S. ecodisaster

The hurricane destroyed or damaged about 320 million trees across the South.

from the November 19, 2007 edition

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The Tulane and UNH estimate of the storm's damage is "way, way, way too much," says Wayne Tucker of the Mississippi Institute for Forest Inventory (MIFI) in Jackson.

Instead of looking at a small number of test plots, MIFI conducted more than 150 on-the-ground surveys on randomly selected plots in each affected county. Revising early estimates of about 3 billion lost board feet, state forestry experts finally figured the storm ruined about 1 billion board feet – one-fifth of the estimate published in Science, according to Mr. Tucker.

"Their analysis on imagery is probably pretty good, but where they fell down was their sampling method," he says.

Mississippi researchers agree, however, that the damage transformed the ecological and economic equation for landowners and residents. Tellingly, paper and lumber companies are switching from fast-growing but relatively fragile loblolly pines – which fell in droves during Katrina – to the slower-growing but deeper-rooted longleaf pine. Private and state nurseries are sold out of longleaf seedlings.

What's more, Congress for the first time approved money – $504 million – to help states replant lost forests, but only a fraction of that money has so far been allocated. One problem: Because the US has never before compensated tree owners, the program employs a formula used to assess cotton crop damages – a poor fit that has put the project behind schedule.

Congress also provided tens of millions of dollars for states to buy firefighting equipment, which has already been used to cut hundreds of miles of new firebreaks. In fact, with about half the fallen lumber salvaged, the worst fire fears are over, says Mr. Shephard at MSU.

But trees define life in Mississippi more than in simply dollar terms, says Ms. Anderson, the Poplarville resident and coordinator of a replanting effort in Pearl River County. Today, the resuscitation effort is driven largely by residents keen to see the return of the canopy, which defined many people's sense of place.

Replant South Mississippi, a private effort, hopes in the next three years to replace 300,000 lost trees, including elder, pecan, poplar, black gum, Chickasaw plum, bald cypress, red buckeye, pawpaw, 10 varieties of oak, and bigleaf magnolia.

"My best, most fun activity was to walk in the woods, and now almost every tree is gone," says Anderson. "I can't even go walk where I used to because of all the dead trees. I've gained 20 pounds since the storm."

Blessed with long growing seasons and favorable weather, the region is expected to see much of the canopy regrow within 15 years, experts say.

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