Gulfport was one of the only communities along the Gulf Coast to implement the protocol; urban foresters had established sample plots (street segments) and completed an inventory of trees. The plots were resurveyed after Katrina and a plan formed to assess still living trees, but the plan was not carried out by the contractors who came in to do debris removal. It was simply easier, faster, and more lucrative to bulldoze down live trees than to assess or prune them.

What happened to urban trees in Gulfport and other communities along the Gulf Coast during the cleanup after Katrina caught the attention of Ed Macie, director of urban forestry for the FS Southern Region. Hundreds of thousands of urban trees were killed or badly damaged by Katrina’s winds and storm surge. Municipalities needed a way to assess how much money it would take to remove thousands of downed trees, but they also needed to know how to save those left standing.

Around the same time, arborists attending the Society of Municipal Arborists (SMA) meeting in Windsor, Ontario, expressed interest in volunteering their services to communities along the Gulf Coast to help assess damage to urban trees. “The storm had just happened before their annual meeting and they were ready to go,” says Dudley Hartel, center manager with SRS Urban Forestry South in Athens, GA.

On the Ground

At the regional office, Macie began assembling a partnership of agencies and organizations interested in providing professional assistance to the Gulf Coast. Initially, these included the SMA, the International Society of Arboriculture, Davey Resource Group (DRG), and the FS Southern Region.

Hartel and SRS technology transfer specialist Eric Kuehler worked with DRG to develop a rapid assessment protocol for damaged trees. Working with the Mississippi Forestry Commission, the partners developed and tested protocols that winter and then set off for Biloxi, MS, with an initial six volunteers in January 2006. In Biloxi, the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain arranged for volunteer housing.

In mid-February, work moved to the New Orleans area, and Katie Armstrong (FS Northern Area) began a 1-month detail to lead additional volunteer teams, with Hartel and Kuehler rotating training and planning over the next 3 months as they worked their way along the Gulf Coast communities of Mississippi and Louisiana.

“When we first arrived, residents were still trying to get things in order and really didn’t have time to be concerned about urban trees,” says Hartel. “Most of the trees we saw were severely damaged except for live oak. At that time, the magnolias hadn’t died, though eventually, they were pretty much lost. Live oak and cypress were the species that best withstood the wind, flooding, and tidal surge along the coast.”

The main goal of the arborist teams was to provide cities with a list of priority removals and pruning and other storm related actions. Between January and May, the teams assessed urban trees in 10 communities affected by Katrina. They trained and coordinated 35 professional volunteers, and assessed more than 7,500 trees, providing information for interim plans for tree removal and pruning. Most importantly at the time, they provided the information municipalities needed to request funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for hazardous tree removal and to provide specifications for contractor work.

“We learned the importance of timing right away,” says Hartel. “In some places, we got there too early, before the community was ready for us. In other cases, we got there too late, after everything had been cleaned up. We learned that it’s best to get there right after the initial emergency clearing has been done.”

Even in communities that had been cleaned up, the teams found hazardous trees still standing. “We saw many instances where trees that should have been saved were removed and dangerous ones left standing,” says Hartel. “We saw the benefit of having people on the ground with the background, training, and experience to assess trees.”

Urban Forest Recovery

The Mississippi Forestry Commission initially estimated that 200,000 urban trees had been damaged in that State alone, with foresters estimating an equal number in Louisiana. Many trees that could have survived the damage were cleaned up before they could be assessed by arborists or urban foresters.

“This project helped us to understand how tree cleanup efforts are handled by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers and how these impact the urban forest,” says Hartel. “We’ve since developed an urban tree assessment protocol that is flexible enough to be used by communities across the southern region for any type of disaster.”

But it’s about more than debris removal and lessening the risk of damage from falling limbs. The trees that survive are the foundation for restoring urban forests and their benefits. In spite of the high winds and saltwater storm surge from Katrina and Rita, many urban trees stayed alive, or could have been saved by professional management.

“Damage to urban forests threatens public safety and, in the short term, creates economic burdens to local and State governments,” says Hartel. “It also means loss of important ecosystem services such as energy, stormwater control, air quality, and habitat. By retaining as many trees as possible, a community can use these trees as the foundation for recovery of these vital services.”

For more information:
Dudley Hartel at 706–559–4236 or
dhartel@fs.fed.us Eric Kuehler at 706–559–4268 or
ekuehler@fs.fed.us

 

 

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