Savannah River Site Forest Recovery Takes Shape Following Hurricane Helene

With site recovery well underway, the IMT mission has changed from initial response to assessing Helene's damage to the forests onsite and planning forest recovery efforts.

Assessing the storm's impact on roughly 170,000 acres of forested areas on the site was made even more daunting by the necessity to clear over 1,200 miles of secondary roads to access forested areas. Close to 80% of those roads are now clear.

Large swaths of trees that were to be sold and harvested in future timber sales were blown down. Forest Service employees are resurveying these areas to reassess timber values and determine the new sizes of areas to be sold.

"We need to reassess these newly established sale areas to make sure they are clear for this type of harvesting operations," said David Malone, assistant manager for forest planning. "Some of these areas are heavily damaged, so we're following safety protocols first and surveying these areas as best we can."

Forested areas onsite set aside to help manage threatened, endangered or sensitive species were also affected by the storm. Seventy-three cavity trees used by red-cockaded woodpeckers were damaged. Surveys found that roughly 25% of the cluster areas where those woodpeckers are found onsite contained trees damaged by the storm. The Forest Service will designate new cluster areas and install new inserts for future use by the woodpeckers.

As the mission of the IMT has changed from first response to forest recovery, so has its staff composition. The team is now composed of firefighters familiar with sawing and heavy equipment use to continue clearing roads. The team also includes engineers, ecologists, wildlife biologists, researchers, safety and budgetary staff members, and other administrative professionals.

"Together this team will oversee the transformation from a landscape heavily damaged by Hurricane Helene back to healthy, dynamic forests on Savannah River Site," said DeVela Clark, forest manager, Forest Service - Savannah River.

-Contributor: Josef Orosz