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If A Tree Falls In Louisiana, We Can Hear It In Florida

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 16, 2007

"This is the worst environmental disaster in the United States since the Exxon Valdez accident ... and the greatest forest destruction in modern times," said James Cummins, executive director of the nonprofit environmental group Wildlife Mississippi.
Satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest forestry disaster on record in America, an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged some 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana.

But the impact will reach Florida: The die-off, caused initially by wind and later by the weeks-long pooling of stagnant water, was so massive that researchers say it will add significantly to the greenhouse gas buildup.

Nation/World, Page 4

•The amount of carbon that will be released into the atmosphere as the trees and other storm-damaged vegetation decompose is projected to be about 1.1 billion tons, equal to the amount of carbon that all the trees in the United States take out of the atmosphere in a year.

•The U.S. Forest Service and Farm Service Agency have estimated economic losses at $2 billion.

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