Piney Woods Bear Scars of Winter Storm

Four months after a vicious ice storm swept through much of the Deep South’s piney woods, numerous forest casualties still lie where they fell, posing summer worries about bugs and fires.

The storm, unusual for both its geography and severity, raged Feb. 8-10, draping a heavy sheet of ice that proved especially damaging in northern Mississippi and parts of Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee.

Utility poles, branches, even whole trees broke off with snaps as loud as rifle shots.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime storm,” said Ham Williston, a 74-year-old timber owner, adding: “I hope it’s once in a lifetime.”

Timber damage in what is nearly universally described as a war zone in northern Mississippi has been estimated at $1.3 billion, based on surveys by state foresters right after the storm.

But the full economic impact on this vital industry in one of the poorest states won’t be known for years, as growers watch whether less-heavily damaged trees can regenerate and produce a crop that commonly takes a quarter-century to mature.

Nearly every forest in northern Mississippi suffered some damage. Although that’s been a boon for removal services and mills, the salvage glut has driven down wood prices in the hardest-hit areas, and some small growers are giving wood away just to get rid of it.

As summer nears, state and federal foresters worry about all the damaged wood still to be salvaged. Forest fires are a threat, and the downed wood could become a prime breeding ground for such insects as the Southern pine beetle.

“All the mills are full,” said Rick Harwell, the state forester for Lafayette County. “Most of the wood that’s still on the ground . . . is starting to deteriorate pretty fast.”

“There’s just not enough crews that can get in there and get that downed timber. So you just have to leave it there,” said Harris Kimble, sales and merchandising manager for the Curt Bean Lumber Co. of Glenwood, Ark.

With wood yards full, small amounts of damaged wood are simply being burned. A mound of ashes on the outskirts of this university town is more than 10 feet tall and growing.

“There’s a lot of jacklegs in town, bootlegging it,” said Charles Potts, who runs a tree-removal business from the nearby northern Mississippi town of Etta. “Everyone with a chain saw and a rope is a tree man now.”

Even some undamaged wood has been cleared away to speed salvage, and tree-removal workers tell of traumatized homeowners cutting down trees in their yards in fear of future ice storms.

Industry officials say the national impact is small, although some local prices for wood have plunged 10% to 25%. Federal disaster aid is expected to repay most of local governments’ cleanup costs, and growers can seek tax relief for casualty losses.

But foresters and growers say this year’s damage will be felt for years. They predict impacts on newsprint and paper mills, lumber companies and makers of other construction materials.

“We’re going to have a gap in production,” Williston said. “There’s going to be a bind. The labor force is heavily dependent upon the pine resource.”

Steve Corbitt of the Mississippi Forestry Assn., a trade group based in Jackson, said almost one-fourth of the state’s manufacturing jobs are related to timbering.

“It’s a significant part of the economy,” Corbitt said.

“It’s the most devastating thing that I’ve ever been part of,” said Jesse Phillips, publisher of the Oxford Eagle newspaper and owner of about 250 acres of timber.

Besides his economic losses, Phillips described the psychological hurt of losing 100-year-old trees from his yard.

But like many in this area, he’s determined to rebound. “The thing that I said is to not dwell on the number of trees that are down, but look at the number of them that are still standing,” he said.

Mowing on his land the other day, he saw a striking sign of hope--hundreds of pine seedlings.