Michigan forests destroyed by devastating ice storm

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Lucas Merrick of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources reported that about three million acres of forests were impacted by the devastating ice storm that hit the region from March 28-30.

Transcript

00:00The severe weather late season ice storm that hit northern Michigan a couple of weeks ago

00:04knocked out power and downed trees across state forests.

00:09Here with more is Lucas Merrick of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

00:13Thank you so much for joining us for this morning.

00:16And Lucas, can you describe how widespread the tree damage is in your area?

00:21Have you seen any kind of ice event like this before?

00:23Around 3 million acres of northern Michigan forest has been impacted by the ice storm.

00:31Close to 1 million acres of this state is state forest land.

00:36There are treetops, limbs, and whole trees laying on the ground everywhere.

00:41No, I've never seen an event as big or as devastating as this.

00:46There are acres and acres of trees basically just snapped in half.

00:50Wow. And did a lot of those trees or at least some of them impact the roadways and the state parks

00:57and even some hiking trails and campgrounds, I would assume, has been impacted?

01:03Yes. Many of the state forest roads and two tracks throughout the forest system remain impassable,

01:09blocked by downed trees and debris.

01:12Hiking trails and campgrounds are currently being assessed by staff.

01:16Many of these places are still physically blocked and are just plain hazardous to enter at the moment.

01:23Our goal is to get the larger state park, campgrounds, and trail systems up and running first.

01:29We still are just so astonished by some of the video, and we've never seen anything like that either, of course.

01:33And do you know if any of the timber can be salvaged, and will this debris become a wildfire hazard, do you think?

01:40Well, absolutely. These areas can be salvaged.

01:42We have staff assessing the heavily damaged areas first.

01:46The dead woody debris will have many positive impacts from Michigan forests,

01:51but these treetops and branches, they will begin to dry out,

01:55and the potential for intense ground fires will increase throughout the next several years.

01:59I have to ask you here, those trees that have been snapped then,

02:03are all those trees then going to die that have been snapped?

02:07Will they grow back? But what happens to them?

02:09Well, we're going to continue to gather information and assess our priorities.

02:15Many of the trees that have been snapped in half will die.

02:21And then what's next? Is there a timeline for your crews on how long clearing, repairing,

02:26and replanting could take in these forest areas? You have about 30 seconds.

02:31Road clearing will likely last into the summer or early fall optimistically,

02:36especially in the more remote areas of the forest.

02:39The salvage sales are going to take up to about a year to complete,

02:42and it will take about two years after the salvage sales before we start getting seedlings into the ground.

02:48The damage from the storm will have a significant impact on our planning and operations for the next 40 to 50 years.

02:55Wow.

02:56Lucas Merrick of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

02:59Thank you so much for the information. Just an unprecedented event.

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