Forestry
-
It’s well known that in a drought, trees near the tops of hills are more likely to die than trees farther down the hill. This is because water runs downhill, and whatever water is captured in the dry conditions is more likely to be stored in valleys. The water table also drops more steeply in…
-
Fruit Growers Newsletter published a story this week on the economic impacts of Hurricane Irma just to Florida agriculture. The story breaks down the losses by agricultural sector, but the total overall is over $2.5 billion. And they point out that does not include the loss of future production or the cost of rebuilding infrastructure. …
-
Here’s an astounding fact on timber losses in Florida due to Hurricane Irma from David Zierden on Twitter, passed on from the Florida Forest Service: the amount totalled $1.633Billion, equal to about five of Florida’s annual timber harvests. I have not seen similar loss estimates for Georgia or South Carolina so far.
-
While most of us in the Southeast are focused on dealing with the reality that is Irma, producers in other parts of the US are dealing with their own disasters. I will discuss the impacts of Harvey tomorrow. Today I want to discuss the wildfires out west, which have covered a huge amount of territory.…
-
Hurricane Andrew crossed the Florida peninsula just south of Miami 25 years ago and ripped up mangrove cover along the coastlines with its storm surge and extreme winds. According to a story this week in the Miami Herald, “Michael Ross, a landscape ecologist at Florida International University, has been visiting the same stand of mangroves…
-
The US Fish and Wildlife Service had an interesting story this week about two farmers in the Southeast who are working to restore longleaf pine forests in the region. Longleaf pine acreage was reduced to about 3 million acres at one time but is now making a comeback thanks to the work of these folks. …
-
Here is a very interesting article about how the percentage of land in agriculture across the world has changed over time. If you look at the changes in cropland in the Southeast, you can see decreases in the coastal plains and increases in other areas. Not too surprising, since forested land is not considered to…