Assistance
Remote sensing technology helps analyze forest regeneration
By Jennifer Schmidt
J
une 6, 2007, was a typical
spring day for Paul Crocker, GIS
and Inventory forester at
Menominee Tribal Enterprises (MTE)
in northeastern Wisconsin.
June 7, however, was anything but
ordinary.
Crocker, whose duties include
managing the forest inventory
department, recalls the day being hot
and muggy – with storms forecast for
the afternoon.
“After arriving home in the late
afternoon, the local TV stations broke
in with a tornado warning,” Crocker
recently recalled from his office within
the culture-rich Menominee Forest –
where Reservation lands total some
235,000 acres. “I watched the storm
on the station’s radar, not knowing
the severity of the damage until the
following day when I reported in to
work.”
Five tornadoes touched down in
central and northeast Wisconsin that
day, among them an EF2-rated twister
that tore a path straight through the
diverse forest the forestry staff strives
so hard to protect and maintain.
Winds were estimated at 130 mph,
according to the National Weather
Service.
In just 12 minutes, the tornado
took down what typically takes MTE’s
2│ TRENDS
loggers a year to harvest. When it
was all said and done, the tornado
destroyed 2,200 acres of prime
timberland – the reservation’s primary
revenue source.
“The degree of damage that
windstorm did on the forest is
something that we hadn’t had in our
lifetime,” said Marshall Pecore, MTE’s
forest manager. “We have straightline
winds that blow down trees regularly,
but we haven’t had anything in our
written records to that severity ever.”
It was important they collect what
lumber they could and, remarkably,
they were able to salvage 56,000 cords
of pulp wood and 14 million board
feet of saw timber – enough to build
518 2,000-square-foot homes.
The long-term effect of the
blowdown was the more formidable
threat.
With this many of MTE’s premium
trees now wiped out, coupled with
the uncertainty of what would grow
back, future revenue was in jeopardy.
The foresters – who meticulously
manage the lands for a healthy and
diverse forest – needed to start from
scratch in this 21-mile stretch of
the forest. What would re-emerge
naturally in time? Where might
replanting be needed? How should
they best manage for certain species