By Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

At the recent Cenla Forestry Forum, a reckoning of hurricane-related losses and agency responses ranged from a recounting of funds spent to the fear that emptied coffers could lead to wildfires becoming the state's next big disaster.

C.A. "Buck" Vandersteen, executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association and a key player in timber-recovery task forces, said not to call state forester Paul Frey a "doomsday prophet" for wearing a lapel pin that reads "The next storm will be WILDFIRE."

Given personnel shortages linked to funding setbacks, Vandersteen said he expected fire crews would be unable to adequately address major drought fires of the future, a prospect he said bodes ill for all Louisiana residents, including urban and suburban dwellers.

"Don't let us forget that rural Louisiana is the glue that holds this great state's infrastructure together," he said.

In another funding concern, Vandersteen said the post-storms Gulf Opportunity Zone Act is insufficient and needs to be amended because it limits reforestation aid to timber owners with fewer than 500 acres in the specified zone.

Also on the storms front, he commended a host of people for pulling together in the wake of hurricane devastation. "Lack of communication became a nightmare because all the cell phone communication towers were blown down or inoperable, with Blackberries becoming the communication venue. But through all of this chaos, the forest community, the loggers, the mills and the truckers stepped forward and took the initiative."

He said that in an attempt to sow hope in association with Louisiana's Arbor Day observance, the Louisiana Forestry Association gave away 3,000 live-oak seedlings, 2,500 of them in the Mandeville area which suffered massive tree loss. He said live oaks were chosen because they appeared to have stood up better against Katrina forces than any other tree species.

The forum, held Jan. 31 at the Tall Timbers campground near Woodworth in Rapides Parish, was sponsored by the LSU AgCenter and drew more than 125 agency members engaged in various aspects of forestry.

Cattle, citrus, vegetation lost

Dr. Paul Coriel, vice chancellor of the AgCenter, tried to convey the scope of hurricane losses and used dramatic before-and-after photos of Holly Beach in Cameron Parish to demonstrate just a small portion of the storms' effects.

He said that more than 4,500 head of cattle were lost; the citrus industry in Louisiana and Mississippi was virtually wiped out; protective coastline vegetation was destroyed; and the Gulf Coast of the two major affected states, Louisiana and Mississippi, sunk significantly.

He said aquaculture took one of the biggest hits because of saltwater incursion, with extensive soil testing now taking place in order to determine the advisability of planting this year's rice crop. He said large amounts of rainfall will be needed to dilute salt residue. On a brighter note, he said crawfish showed an amazing tolerance to some salinity, with the crop for this year not being adversely affected.

But troubled oyster beds and shrimp supplies will take an untold numbers of years to redevelop, Coriel said.

He said agriculture's Katrina-related losses have been estimated at more than $1 billion, with Rita's numbers pegged at more than a $500 million. The dairy industry alone suffered more than $1 million in losses, he said, mostly because of cattle drowning or having to be destroyed after drinking contaminated water.

Moving to timber losses, Coriel quoted a "conservative figure" of $611 million, taking into account losses of an estimated 1.4 million board feet of pine timber and 1.1 million board feet of hardwood. Total losses to this main cash crop of Louisiana could exceed $2 billion, he said.

He said nurseries north of Lake Pontchartrain took a tremendous hit, but the upside for the nursery business is that the market is now hungry for flowers, trees and shrubs for scenic restoration.

He noted AgCenter-supported storm responses including more than 100,000 copies of "Disaster Recovery Series and Cleaning Flood-Damaged Homes" having been printed at a cost of $80,000, and that more than 75,000 4-H Club members are being trained to help ongoing recovery efforts.

More recovery efforts

In other recovery efforts, Steve Carmichael, state resource conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said his agency is assisting a number of parishes, municipalities, levee districts, and drainage districts in debris removal and levee repairs.

The agency, which is also helping non-industrial landowners impacted by the storms, has thus far spent $8.5 million on Katrina-related projects and more than $2 million in projects stemming from Rita. Carmichael noted that those seeking help in watershed restoration should contact their local office of the Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Service.

Willie Cooper, state executive director for the Farm Service Agency, said the Emergency Conservation Program has ongoing aid for repairing structures, fences and de-watering projects but forestry is not included in this particular program because of a separate Timber Indemnity Program to cover this need. He also said that the Family & Community Resource Program has expanded resources so that it can help if more than 35 percent of a landowner's timber has been lost.

Downed timber

Timber loss was uppermost on Paul Frey's mind, (the state forester mentioned earlier in connection with the wildfire lapel pin). He said that the blow-down of timber in Louisiana from hurricanes was roughly six to 25 times the annual harvest. In just seven parishes, he said, more than 3 billion board feet of soft and hard wood were downed.

With so much downed timber, another concern of the State Forestry Department was pine beetle infestations; traps were set up and monitored for a month in seven parishes, with the beetles' west-to-east migration pattern governing stationing of the traps. No significant increases were noted, but Frey warned, "We've got spring and summer coming on which will produce their kind of climate for reproduction."

He said that as a hedge against future catastrophic hurricanes, state nurseries are "pulling out all stops" in gathering salt-tolerant cypress seeds to produce seedlings that can be planted for future erosion control and buffering action.

The art of disaster response

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Caldwell had just returned from an assignment in East Texas where drought-instigated forest fires burned more than 300,000 acres and torched more than 300 homes. He said the agency's work after fires, hurricanes and even recovery of shuttle debris have something in common.

"One thing we've learned is that for any organization to function maximally, the red tape had to be abolished." This was of utmost importance when more than 5,000 personnel were put on the ground searching for and recovering debris from the Discovery shuttle disaster, he said.

The U.S. Forest Service set up distribution centers at Camp Beauregard in Rapides Parish and in Meridian, Miss., to address post-Rita needs. Then when the timber salvage began as a part of the Katrina and Rita Timber Recovery Program initiated by Vandersteen (mentioned earlier as executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association), timber operations sites were set up in Pineville and Hattiesburg, Miss.

"Louisiana and Mississippi will be rebuilt and restored, but it will be the local people who will be instrumental in accomplishing this enormous task," Caldwell said.

Tax attorney Paul Spillers said landowners need to talk with tax consultants to come abreast of new rules governing IRS casualty losses and taxation developments. He said "literally thousands of dollars in land taxes could be saved by adhering to new rules."

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