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| The "Sandy Superstorm" was by far the most destructive storm I have ever seen in the mountains of Western MD. Norway spruce were hit especially hard. One grove of about 200 trees in nearby Hampshire County had the tops broken off of more than 90% of the trees.
On my timberland in Garrett County, MD I lost something like 25% of my Norway spruce trees. Many had the top 20 or 25 feet broken off, some trees nearly 100 feet tall were broken in half, leaving no live crown. In some places groups of 6 or 8 all together were broken. About three feet of very wet sticky snow fell, stuck to the trees, and then wind gusts of 60 plus mph finished the job. I lost about half of my remaining larch trees. I had already lost a bunch in an early snow 4 years ago. Also hit horrendously hard were the hemlocks--most of those in clearly dominant crown positions are OK, but ALL the understory hemlocks were destroyed. Of all the conifers, the white pines fared the best--their upper crowns did not collect so much snow. but a number of very large ones were broken off about 40 feet up. Hardwood trees that had lost their leaves were OK. Electrical power lines devastated--after 9 days the power is still out at my timberland. Miles of electrical line were completely taken out. On a news report I heard that at one point not one customer in all of Randolph county WV had any electricity. --Spruce
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Norway spruce is not very storm hardy. In the link below you can see the result of another storm. That is only about 1,3% of all trees felled in that storm. A mojority of those trees are norway spruce, but there is some scots pine to. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of storm felled timber
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| Sorry to hear about the poor trees! What happens to the forests now? Do people try to recover timber? Do other species fill in the gaps? Huggorm it is interesting to see how much timber they have recovered. Do you know why they are watering the logs? |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 6, 12 at 18:35
| see link for translation of link caption ... wonder why they are wetting it all.. fire???? .. whats the use of those?? paper.. lumber????? i feel for you spruceman.. any chance at some pix.. some day maybe ... ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
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| Those are Norway spruces that were in Norway I'm guessing. Sorry to hear about your loss Spruceman. Hopefully you can get money for the timber of lots of it. Strangely, in my yard the White pines only 2 of them though, snap before the Norway spruce. There are a row of about 10 of them at a neighbors, I have only 1 that is large, an it hasn't been really tested with wet snow. Why the hose though, I've heard Hemlock cracks upon drying, but isn't it only good for paper-making anyway? |
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| Watering has many purposes. Saw mills are dimensioned for wet, newly cut logs, and as wood shrimp when it dries up boards would be wrong size if sawed when they are already dry. And there are also the insect problem. Infected lumber can only be made into paper, and that does not pay as well. Those enormous log piles would also spawn quite a lot of wood eating insects, that might go on and destroy nearby woods. There are also problem with lumber getting blue colored inside if allowed to dry up, wich is an early stadium of decay. |
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| "Those are Norway spruces that were in Norway I'm guessing" In Sweden; blown down on 8 January 2005 by 'Gudrun', a storm equivalent to a Category 1 or 2 hurricane. The wood pile in Huggorm's link is 13 metres high and 2.5 km long. Spraying keeps the wood moist so it doesn't dry out and split during storage; it also reduces decay and stops bark beetles from breeding so easily. The total blown down was over 75 million cubic metres, several years' normal supply (the log piles are still not all used; pic from 2011) Resin |
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| Sorry to hear it, Spruceman. Seems wet snow makes all the difference -- I don't see significant damage here at lower altitudes, despite the roaring winds. There was more local damage here last yr from the late Oct snow -- which had little wind. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 snapped in half every virgin Hemlock around Mountain Lake, VA. The oldest were 300-500 yrs old & well over 100' tall. |
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| This is what it looks like after a small tornado.
Marko |
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| Folks: Thanks for your sympathy for me and/or my trees. Ken: I will try to take some pictures, but this kind of thing is difficult to capture. Pictures of the tops laying on the ground will be easy, but good pictures looking up from below might not show things clearly. Huggorm: Norway spruce have a mixed kind of storm hardiness. First, this was a very unusual kind of storm. The weight of the snow on the upper crowns, and then the wind. Generally Norway spruce handle snow and ice loads better than most trees. They handle ice storms better than most hardwoods, and better than white pine. As for just plain strong winds, they are no worse than average. And they resist being uprooted in strong winds surprisingly well. I don't want anyone to think that Norway spruce are especially susceptible to storm damage. I have had my spruce groves for about 40 years, and have observed them carefully for all that time. They are actually pretty tough. As for salvage: there is not really any significant value. First, there are not massive amounts of them. These trees would not be worth much for lumber, and worth little or nothing for pulpwood. I could get someone to salvage something--maybe--but they would bring in equipment that would damage other trees in the process of salvaging the broken ones. What I will do is leave the lower part of some that lost all their crown for the woodpeckers, etc. Some others, maybe just a few, that didn't lose too much of their crown, may resprout a new top--Norway spruce do this wonderfully well. And then I may just cut some down to clear away the mess. The openings made by having a whole group broken together are fairly small. I may plant some sugar maples, which are very shade tolerant, in the larger openings. In other places, the trees surrounding a broken tree or two will grow larger and spread a bit wider, narrowing or closing the opening. I am having a hard time adjusting to "this new reality" in my woods, but there are many, many beautiful trees left. The woods will be different, but as time passes, they will recover somewhat, and as they develop from here, be a bit different from what I had been anticipating, but still be very beautiful. --Spruce |
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Wed, Nov 7, 12 at 13:24
| I'm so sorry to be hearing about this, Spruce. I know how much those trees mean to you. And too, I agree to disagree with Huggorm's blanket statement that this species is not able to handle storms. Like you have said, I believe it is above average in that regard. But 3 ft. of wet snow along with hurricane-force winds......most any tree type in foliage could be susceptible. Glad there's still enough left to keep these stands going. +oM |
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| That's true, most trees will have problem with 3 ft. of wet snow and strong wind. Really sad when something like that happends. Great that you let some stumps be left for the woodpeckers! |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Wed, Nov 7, 12 at 17:26
| but good pictures looking up from below might not show things clearly. ==>> what.. you dont have a jet backpack for tree trimming.. lol ... whenever.. just curious ... take care ken |
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| I'm so sorry, Spruce. |
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| The upside of that destruction, is that it opens up gaps for other tree or understory species, and provides habitat for woodpeckers and other cavity nesters (which includes Bluebirds, Nuthatches, Titmice, Chickadees, Tree Swallows, etc). I bet other creatures will benefit in some ways too. Back in the day, people probably would have been psyched when such a storm came through. I read somewhere that the term "windfall" refers to the wood that is blown down from trees in a storm. The colonists loved it, because they were allowed to collect the windfall, but they were prohibited from cutting down trees. Apparently all standing trees belonged to the King. Spruceman I bet your woods are still quite beautiful, and to me even the fallen wood, the heaved stumps, leaf litter or other debris, and even broken trees, have their beauty too, especially as they rot, grow mosses, etc. |
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- Posted by tsugajunkie z5 SE WI (My Page) on Wed, Nov 7, 12 at 19:08
| Very sorry about your loss, Spruce. I know you have a genuine love for your trees. tj |
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| Terrine: You have wonderful wisdom--much appreciated. And, as bad as this storm was on my favorite groves of trees, every time I see the reports about what this storm did to people in places like the Jersey Shore, I realize that any losses I have suffered in my woods are nothing. By the way, I grew up in NJ and enjoyed the Jersey shore regularly--I know just what was lost. And how the people are suffering. Horrible! But, to put things in perspective, my timberland is still an incredible treasure. Nature giveth, and nature taketh away. But mostly I have seen, and will continue to see, the giving. Ken: as for pictures--I think I can get a good picture from a distance of the grove in Hampshire County that had the worst destruction. Because most of the trees there lost their tops, they will have good sun exposure and will grow new tops in just a few years. The ones that won't be able to do that are those single trees broken in the dense forest--some of these were absolute beauties. And some lost just too much of their crowns to recover, regardless. In additiion, I can easily get good pictures of the damage to the young and/or understory hemlocks. When I go up again in the next few days I will make picture taking a priority. Last time I had no interest--I was too busy surveying the damage, and "surviving" in my little trailer with no electricity and no water |
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| Sorry about the damage. It's a shame to lose so many special trees, but like you say, in a few years there will be new and maybe unexpected joys in your forest. I remember coming through whole areas of blowdown while hiking in Maine. It was usually big sections of white cedar/ red or black spruce forest. Always fascinating to pass through the masses of stacked dead wood and the struggling new seedlings that were now fighting it out for their own space in the sun. |
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| After a couple yrs, I predict you'll be amazed (as I was after the 1994 ice-storm) how fast the adjacent trees will fill the gaps. One tree's loss is the adjacent trees' gain. |
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Thu, Nov 8, 12 at 18:19
| In the part of the woods adjacent to the bit that I own, there's a sizable blowdown area. Big white pines, stacked this way and that, numerous white cedar laying sideways, in some cases still partially rooted in and growing. It's actually a fascinating spot. The vitality in evidence in that spot is amazing. Trees getting their start in the stumps, the cracks and crevices, provided by this event. Like Terrene, I find much to marvel at in such a location. Still has to hurt to see some of your big beauties blown down or cracked off though. So what happened to the young hemlocks? Were they weighted down with too much snow and broken off by that? That's a real shame as, if I remember correctly, a lot of the mature hemlocks in that area were killed by adelgid. +oM |
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| Folks: Here is the original topic--the recent one including the pictures is a follow-up. --Spruce |
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