Infrastructure Enhancement to Support Value-Added Bioproduct Recovery

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to identify and make available new and existing information to facilitate more effective response by individuals, organizations, and government entities when storms and other forms of catastrophic disturbance lead to unplanned influxes of downed timber and woody debris across the southeastern United States. To this end, this project explored attitudes and behaviors of stakeholders regarding their post disaster timber salvage experiences. Findings are reported from twelve focus group sessions with forestry decision makers, including landowners, loggers, foresters, and agency representatives. Data were analyzed using an iterative coding process that organized large quantities of text into fewer categories and identified emergent themes. Relationships between themes and categories were described within and across cases based on their concurrence, antecedents, or consequences. This technique was followed by a content analysis focusing on discovering underlying meanings and understanding explicit versus euphemistic terms. Findings center around economic limitations and opportunities, social networks in resource utilization, and diverse interpretations of the disaster event.As well, findings demonstrate how risk perceptions and disaster experience interact to construct social meanings for disaster and associated preparedness activities. Implications include value-added utilization options for woody storm debris that have been pursued in past storm events and lessons learned that can inform future decisions.

Hurricane regimes for forests of North and Central America

“…At local scales, hurricanes alter forest structure and composition (Peterson 2019;Rutledge et al 2021), nutrient and energy flows (Foster et al 1997), and diversity and succession (Xi et al 2008), underscoring the impact that hurricanes may have on vulnerable ecosystems. Major forest hurricane damage can also disrupt local timber markets through short-term oversupply followed by longer-term undersupply (Gordon et al 2018;Henderson et al 2022). Ecological and economic effects from hurricanes will further increase with warming climate (Terando et al 2018) creating a critical need to understand patterns of hurricane disturbance (Stanturf et al 2007).…”

Modelling Wind Damage to Southeastern U.S. Trees: Effects of Wind Profile, Gaps, Neighborhood Interactions, and Wind Direction

“…In terms of area impacted, Florida experienced storm damage across 3 million forested acres while an additional 2 million acres were damaged in Georgia (Jackson, 2019). Following catastrophic disturbances, opportunities to recover timber losses through salvage logging can be limited, especially for small landowners (Gordon et al, 2018). Ecological impacts can be equally extreme.…”

Hurricane wind regimes for forests of North America

“…At local scales, cyclones alter forest structure and composition ( 22 , 23 ), nutrient and energy flows ( 24 ), and diversity and succession ( 25 ), underscoring the impact that tropical cyclones may have on vulnerable ecosystems. Major forest damage can also disrupt local timber markets through short-term oversupply followed by longer-term undersupply ( 26 , 27 ). Ecological and economic effects from cyclones will further increase with warming climate ( 28 ) creating a critical need to understand patterns of disturbance ( 29 ).…”