Urban Forestry, Community Forests, Forest Gardening and Post-Disaster Recovery from Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast

Desk Of Jac
November 16, 2007

As reported in the November 15th issue of the Journal 'Science', the hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 75 percent of the trees in New Orleans, 100 percent in other Gulf Coast towns and a forest in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama the size of Maine or Illinois, with 320 million trees killed.

This is estimated to be the worst forest disaster in US history and in recorded modern times [Mississippi Forest Commission]. Full recovery will take hundreds of years [Louisiana Nature Conservancy].

The decomposition of the forest will generate more carbon dioxide than all forests in the USA can sequester, Also do consider that we lost well above average forests to fires this year from California to the Carolinas.

So, what has urban forestry got to do with the disaster?

Our urban society can not wait hundreds of years to recover the benefits of forestry. And clearly trees in our urban areas are the most effective by far. UC Berkeley finds an urban tree to be 3 to 5 times more effective than the same tree in the woods.

Using New Orleans as a case in point, over half the city has been transformed from built out to vacant. In these areas there isn't a tree left standing. There is nothing more urgent in America today in terms of Climate Change and the health of New Orleans residents, urban forests, community forests and forest gardens may responsibly be given priority over all other rebuilding.

This reforestation can include not primarily ornamental species but first fruit bearing trees for income and nutrition. Slower growing and taller trees can be planted along side to over time establish the needed canopy. Community forests and forest gardens will also be available for forest crops on the ground and shrubs from mushrooms to berries.

The operational concepts here are (i) green infrastructure; (ii) continuous productive urban landscapes and (iii) post disaster recovery. And this program is at a National Scale, not only local, requiring National funding and leadership. It is hard to conceive of a more significant urban agriculture project in our times.