• Baton Rouge

By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

"We set a high goal to salvage 40% of the hurricane damaged timber in Louisiana," Louisiana State Forester Paul Frey told the Piney Woods Journal.

"As we evaluated the damage in Louisiana, we looked at the results of salvage operations in other areas that had experienced similar damage from hurricanes."

"In most instances, only about 25% of the damaged timber was salvaged so we set a higher goal for ourselves," aid Frey, a 1974 LSU Forestry School graduate. "As of the end of March, we had salvaged 15% of the damaged timber in Louisiana."

"FEMA was not a direct help in any of our timber salvage operation," Frey stated to the Journal. "FEMA would help with what they called debris removal if it included timber around a house, business or on a road, but would not help in salvage operations on strictly damaged timberland."

"There was a considerable amount of timber in these situations that was removed but taken to a FEMA dump by contractors who were being paid so much per ton for debris removal that was determined on a scale of how tons were brought to the dump," Frey elaborated on the actual scenario in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. "Whatever the final tally is of how much we will salvage, it is a devastating loss considering that what timber was salvaged was worth only 25% of its pre-Katrina/Rita value. Even though the timber may look good, mills can't take a chance of finding that the trees have 'ring shake' from the wind after they get them to the mill."

"It's a complicated situation even for tax purposes," Frey pointed out. "If you bought a tracy of merchantable timber for X dollars and sustained a loss because of the hurricanes, you can probably recover some of that money as a tax loss. However, if you inherited the land and timber or grew the timber plantation style, then your tax loss gets complicated."

"My major concern is that people who owned timber as an investment will be reluctant the make the long-term commitment of time and money to grow timber again," Frey noted. "However, there are three government programs, the EFCRP, the ECP, and the EWP programs that my be of some benefit to the timber land owners."

The Emergency Forestry Conservation Program (EFCRP) is administered by the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) with funding of $404 million. $23 million in the EFCRP budget is designated for the State Forestry Agencies for the delivery of the program.

Eligibility is limited to private, non-industrial forestland owners suffering a loss of at least 35% of merchantable timber in a disaster declared county in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas.

Merchantable timber is defined as timber having an average tree trunk diameter of at least six inches at a point no less than 4.5 feet above the ground. Value will be determined by the spring 2006 market price of comparable timber.

EFCRP participants can receive financial assistance for up to 50% of the cost of debris removal, site preparation and reforestation to rehabilitate and restore the damaged forest land. It is estimated that 20,000 requests for participation will be received by the FSA under the EFCRP which began on June 19 and will run through November.

"The most help we got from FEMA in Louisiana in the forestry sector was that they did provide monies for us to hire new firefighters and buy new equipment for fire suppression due to the down timber being a fire hazard," Frey stated. "Their funding to us elapsed in April but we were able to find monies to allow us to keep the new fire fighters employed."

"The most apparent benefits offered to help with salvage operations was that the weight limit for the trucks was increased and the DEQ gave storm water discharge permits to help in the harvesting, however, only one was used in Louisiana," Frey elaborated. "Also, Georgia Pacific brought two of their mills out of moth-balls because of the timber damage from the hurricanes in '05."

On the other hand, the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) will provide an additional $31 million to forest landowners. Eligible forestland owners must reside in a county/parish that has received 35% damage to its forestland due to the hurricanes of 2005.

Financial assistance is authorized for up to 75% of the cost of rehabilitation through debris removal, site preparation and reforestation practices not to exceed $150 per acre. It is estimated that State forestry agencies will service 4,000 ECP referrals between June and November of 2006.

The ECP program is also administered by the USDA Farm Service Agency and is funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

"The timber damage from the hurricanes of 2005 happened during the time period in which we are seeing a lot of transition in the timber industry," Frey explained. "Major industrial forest land owners are selling huge tracts of land such as we have recently seen with International Paper and Boise Cascade. How this will ultimately play out in the industry as a whole is still debatable."

"On the other hand, the two storms in Louisiana, Katrina and Rita, hit at a time when the price of fuel was rising rapidly causing additional problems in harvesting and transporting to the mills," Frey pointed out. "Also, we were hit by storms on both sides of the state. We couldn't send downed timber to the mills in the west from the east nor vice versa."

The third federal program that may be of some benefit to forestland owners is the Emergency Watershed Program (EWP). This program is also funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation but is administered by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).

The EWP is similar to the ECP in scope and financial assistance terms. There is on-going discussion between the FSA and NRCS as to the possibility of stacking the EWP and ECP programs to provide sufficient financial assistance to facilitate removal of storm damaged timber.

An estimated 1.7 billion board fee of pine timber was destroyed during Katrina in Louisiana. Another 1.1 billion board feet of pine framing lumber timber was damaged by Rita in Louisiana alone. The potential lumber that could have been manufactured just from the pine timber would have been enough to build approximately 225,000 new houses.

Hardwood timber losses were 1.3 billion board feet from Katrina and 500 million from Rita.

Seven parishes bore the brunt of timber damage from Katrina with Washington Parish leading the way with 65% of its timber damaged. St. Tammany was next in losses at 40% followed by Tangipahoa at 25%, and both Livingston and St. Helena losing 10% of their timber. East Baton Rouge parish which was a long distance to the west from the eye of the storm only sustained damage to 5% of its timber.

On the other hand, Rita damaged timber in six western and central Louisiana parishes with Calcasieu losing 50% of its timber. Jeff Davis parish sustained a the second most damage with a 25% loss, followed by Beauregard at 20%, and Allen at 15% loss. Both Rapides and Vernon parishes sustained 2% and 4% losses.

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