By Jonathan Dingler
Journal Correspondent

Apparently the hurricanes weren't enough punishment from Mother Nature this year for the East Texas Pineywoods. The ensuing drought and wildfires have dealt a double whammy to the storm battered region.

Although wildfires annually provide landowners and firefighters alike with an unwelcome rise in blood pressure, this year has been particularly troublesome. As of February over a quarter of a million acres had burned in Texas which is more acres than all of 2005 combined.

State Forester and Director of the Texas Forest Service, Jim Hull, says this winter's fire season is the worst he's seen in nearly ten years since he became state forester in 1996. "Current fire threat conditions are so extreme that almost any wildfire has the potential to exceed local control at this point," said Hull in a January interview.

A few welcome rain showers in recent weeks seem to have served as a temporary reprieve, but it's still anybody's guess as to what the rest of 2006 holds. 2004 rainfall in the Lufkin area reached a near record high of 79.0 inches. 2005 on the other hand was closer to a record low at 37.1 inches.

Perhaps equally as disastrous as wildfires in the region, will be the effect of the winter drought on reforestation efforts. Tree planting season generally runs from October through February while the soil is moist enough to sustain a seedlings fragile root system.

With very little rainfall this planting season, many foresters passed on tree planting this year. Some who did plant are left scratching their heads wondering what survival will be like in the coming months.

For those who either didn't plant this year, or had high seedling mortality the problem doesn't just end at one year of lost growth. Unfortunately there will also be an added year of woody brush growth to compete with the seedlings next year. This problem is usually addressed with either mechanical or chemical site preparation techniques, for example prescribed burning or herbicides. If, however, landowners already bared the cost of these techniques last summer or fall, they might be reluctant to do it again this year. It becomes a choice between increased competition or increase establishment costs; at any rate it affects the bottom line.

In the meantime, while we wait to see what this year holds weather-wise, we'll have our fingers crossed, hoping Mother Nature will take it easy on us this time.

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