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Katrina, Rita Caused Worst Forest Disaster In History

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By MARC KAUFMAN, The Washington Post

Published: November 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - Satellite imaging has revealed that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in America, an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged some 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The die-off, caused by wind and later by weeks-long pooling of stagnant water, was so massive researchers say it will add significantly to the greenhouse gas buildup - ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the U.S. forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis. Also, the downing of so many trees has opened vast and sometimes fragile tracts of land to several aggressive and fast-growing exotic species that are squeezing out far more environmentally productive native species.

Federal Program Ineffective

Efforts to limit the damage have been handicapped by the ineffectiveness of a $504 million federal program to Gulf Coast landowners to replant and fight the invasive species. Congress appropriated the money in 2005 and added to it in 2007, but officials involved with the emergency conservation program say only about $70 million has been processed or dispensed. Local advocates say onerous bureaucratic hurdles and low compensation rates are major reasons why.

"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 and a board member of the Mississippi Forestry Commission. "It needs a really broad and aggressive response, and so far that just hasn't happened."

Bengt "Skip" Hyberg, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency economist and policy analyst, said changes were made in the program this year to make it more attractive to landowners.

The U.S. Forest Service and Farm Service Agency had made estimates of the forest damage from two 2005 hurricanes, but they have generally focused on economic losses - $2 billion, or 5.5 billion board feet, worth of timber.

The new assessment of trees killed or severely damaged comes from a study in the journal Science, written primarily by researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans who studied images from two NASA satellites.

Lead author Jeffrey Chambers said the team used a before-and-after method perfected by researchers who study logging in the Amazon basin to assess the damage, which occurred over an area the size of Maine. The satellite images identified green vegetation before the storm and wood, dead vegetation and surface litter after the storm. The team then visited the areas of greatest damage to make their overall assessment.

"I was amazed at the quantitative impact of the storm," Chambers said. Of 320 million trees harmed, about two-thirds soon died. "I certainly didn't expect that big an impact," he said.

Huge Carbon Release

Chambers was more surprised when his team calculated the amount of carbon that will be released into the atmosphere as the trees and other storm-damaged vegetation decompose. The total is about 1.1 billion tons, which is equal to the amount of carbon that all the trees in the United States capture and take out of the atmosphere in a year.

Much of the forest damage occurred in Mississippi on land often owned in small parcels by individuals. Larry Payne, cooperative forestry director for the Forest Service, said the congressional effort to restore the forest was largely aimed at helping small landowners, who often used their timberland as a bank account.

The program was created as an emergency add-on to the popular federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners "rent" for returning marginal or environmentally sensitive land to more natural conditions.

"Congress wanted to get money back into the hands of these people, and that was the top priority," he said. But Payne and Hyberg said the Gulf Coast landowners were subject to most of the restrictions and compensation rates as Conservation Reserve participants across the nation, and that worked against efforts to jump-start reforestation in areas hit by Katrina and Rita.

Hurricane Katrina came ashore along the Pearl River, which divides Mississippi and Louisiana and is ecologically very rich and diverse. The Chambers study, as well as the work of local conservationist such as Cummins, found that native species like longleaf pine, live oak, and cypress did much better in surviving the hurricane than other species planted primarily for logging, such as loblolly and slash pine.

The native deciduous forests were severely damaged in some areas. Young, slow-growing oaks and maples are being squeezed out by Chinese tallow trees, which thrive in disturbed land. The trees produce a milky, toxic sap that keeps insects away, making an inhospitable environment for birds and small mammals.

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