Dealing with Catastrophic Storm Damage in Your Woods

The June 1st tornadoes that devastated more than 10,000 acres of woodlands in Hampden & Worcester counties demonstrated again that weather can have catastrophic impacts on woodlands.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re considering having your woods cleaned up.

1. Even though your woodland appears devastated, it will generally recover rapidly.  The large trees that were blown down obviously cannot be replaced quickly but a new and generally more diverse forest will emerge naturally. Whether you salvage some timber or firewood and clean up your woodland or not, new trees will rapidly seed in. Seeds in the soil will germinate and others will be carried in by birds and the wind. Some species will also sprout from the stumps or roots.

2. Take time to get your salvage job done right. It is more important to clean up the mess correctly than quickly. Although a prolonged period of dry weather may create an eventual fire danger, there is little immediate fire hazard because the wood and foliage are still green. In warm weather, bark beetles and blue stain will infect damaged pine timber regardless of how fast you act.

3. Have a licensed forester oversee woodland salvage and cleanup operations. The forester can put together a contract and arrange for salvage by a licensed logger. Any contract should specify the price to be paid for merchantable timber, the cost of dealing with non-merchantable material, what will remain on the ground, and what will be removed. In many cases, the merchantable material may be only a small part of the total timber damaged. Few woodland salvage situations require an immediate response – take the time to nail down the contract details of the salvage operation.

For a list of licensed foresters, see www.masswoods.net or contact MFLA at massforests@verizon.net or (413) 549-5900.

4. Any salvage operation of more than an acre or two will likely require an approved Forest Cutting Plan from the Department of Conservation & Recreation. State law holds the landowner responsible for environmental violations on their property, so landowners need to be sure that any salvage cutting is done properly. DCR Service Foresters are working with landowners and foresters to allow salvage work to get underway as soon as the state’s environmental requirements are met.

To contact DCR’s Service Forestry Bureau, call (413) 545-5993

5. Tree salvage and cleanup following a severe storm are extremely hazardous and the risks to chain saw and equipment operators are many. Footing is bad. It is often difficult or impossible to see how branches or tops are tensioned. When cut, trees may shift, flop over, or release limbs with bone-crushing force. Storm-damaged trees represent a potentially fatal danger to anyone cutting them. In most cases, professional loggers and mechanized harvesters are the safest option.

6. Loggers working in Massachusetts must have a Massachusetts Timber Harvesters license. Ask the forester to get references for the logger, and be sure to require certificates of insurance for liability, property damage and Workmens Compensation to protect you in case a logger gets hurt.

7. As a woodland owner in a federally-declared disaster area, you may be eligible for some assistance with the cost of having timber salvaged from your woodland and getting the slash reduced to make it fire safe. After the tornadoes, MFLA asked our Congressmen and Senators to get federal Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) funds provided to the Farm Service Agencies (FSA) in Hampden and Worcester counties to help landowners restore their woodlands and reduce the fire danger.

In January, $1.76 million in EFRP funds were finally released to the Farm Safety Agencies in Massachusetts for this purpose. Landowners can now apply for EFRP funding to pay for up to 75 percent of the approved cost of doing the cleanup.

To be eligible for such assistance, call the Farm Service Agency for your county and sign up.

In Hampden County, call FSA at 413 585-1000 x2 to apply for assistance.
In Worcester County, call FSA at 508 829-4477 x108 to apply for assistance.

The deadline for applying for EFRP funding is February 29, 2012

8. Whether you have any wood cut and removed from your land or not, the fallen slash and tops should be cut up so they are low to the ground to reduce the fire danger. Cut up slash will wick moisture up from the ground speeding the decomposition process; uncut slash dries more rapidly, decays slower, and is more of a fire danger during dry windy periods.
Remove any slash from streams and try to pull it back 40 feet from property lines and 100 feet from public highways. (The Slash Law – Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 48 Sections 16 & 16A – sets standards for how slash must be treated when logging is done to reduce the risk of wildfires).

9. Don’t try to remove all the downed slash from your woodland. The fine twigs, leaves and small branches from trees contain important nutrients that will help to feed the new trees and other vegetation that initially grows back. Try to leave as much deadwood and old logs on the ground as possible. Fallen trees and deadwood (commonly called coarse woody debris) provides sites for grouse to drum and moist hiding places for salamanders, frogs and snakes. Old logs may provide a moist place for new seedlings to take root. As this coarse woody debris rots, the nutrients they contain slowly leaches into the soil for new trees to use.

10. Try to leave some sound standing snapped-off trees to serve as snags, particularly if located away from your wood roads or trails. Snags provide perches for birds and other wildlife to rest on. Woodpeckers will excavate holes in the snags while looking for insects or larvae to feed on. Other wildlife species then can use the holes the woodpeckers made to build nests or just take a nap during the day safe from predators.

11. It is hard to imagine now, but the new forest that emerges from the wreckage of your woodland will provide wonderful new habitat for wildlife. Many animals, especially songbirds, will thrive in the new herbaceous vegetation that covers the ground initially in the newly sunny areas of your woods. Berry plants and other vegetation provide food for many species of birds and wildlife.

As the new trees grow and their crowns begin to block the sunlight, this herbaceous vegetation will begin to disappear.

12. If you are going to let your land re-grow as forest, consider putting it under Chapter 61 or 61A to save on your property taxes.

For more information, contact MFLA at (413) 339-5526 or email massforests@verizon.net