By Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

Winds topping 100 miles per hour wreaked havoc upon pine forests on September 24th and 25th, 2005 as Hurricane Rita stormed ashore near the Louisiana and Texas state line. As the verse from the Bible states, it rains on the just and the unjust, so were the damages from this intense hurricane meted out upon corporate and private timberlands owners, as well as the National and State forest lands.

In the Kisatchie National Forests, on lands located in central and southwest Louisiana the damages were not nearly as bad as the Gulf Coastal areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Dan McDonald, Calcasieu Forestry District's Fire Management Officer, said there was actually minimal damage done to the 180,000 acres which comprise the District. He said that there were about 350 acres of badly damaged area necessitating immediate harvesting. McDonald added that the damages were isolated, and inflicted in a haphazard fashion, much like damages done previously by mini-tornados. He emphasized that these recovery areas would not constitute any large clear cuts, but rather isolated pockets. The Calcasieu District was the district closest geographically to the path of Rita.

Of greatest concern in the District is the imminent and ever-present danger of forest fires. This fact had already been addressed in a Hurricane Rita Forest Recovery Task Force meeting held in Deridder on October 14th. McDonald said he could not over-accentuate the fire danger. "While we didn't sustain very much damage to the timber as a whole, we had literally thousands of pine limbs blown out on what was an already tinder-dry potential for devastating fires. While some areas got around 10 inches of rain, west central Louisiana was already facing a deficit of normal rainfall of over 20 inches. THe rain we received during the interim of the hurricane was of very little value. While any rainfall during the current drought is much appreciated, it was so hard and so fast, it did very little to reconcile the fire danger." He bemoaned the fact that, for instance, the Winn Forestry District received only about two inches of rainfall during the hurricane event.

Another factor that has now come into play is the brisk north winds of late, coupled with unusually low humidity, which has raised the danger of forest fires even more. To recall the words of an official with one of the municipalities receiving the effects of the tornado-force winds, "I do not want to be relegated to the role of a doom's day prophet, but in a realistic, worst case scenario, an unimpeded forest fire under certain conditions, would be capable of wiping out an entire town.

McDonald went on to say that even though the infrastructure was heavily damaged, the bulk of the damage to Kisatchie's Calcasieu District was to the large trees blown down in and around the recreational areas, especially around the Kincaid Lake area.

Although there was no damage to structures, the large downed trees were the real casualties. Another detriment of the gale force winds was that downed limbs and trees blocked many access roads and possible future fire lanes. McDonald said, "There is no way that one of our little D-4 Caterpillar tractors could push a tree 20 inches in diameter out of the way in the process of attempting to plow a fire lane around any given blaze. The extensive blight of downed limbs and debris is also an impediment and hazard to hunters in the area."

McDonald said, "We have a big mess to clean up, and it's very true that our infrastructure did take a hit, but we will battle back, and the damages shouldn't impact us too much in our continued preservation efforts of our wonderful resources in the Kisatchie National Forest."

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