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Gone with the Wind
Some days after Storm Klaus hit the Northern coast of Spain and landed in Southwestern France, disruptions of daily life slowly disappear. Road blocks removed, power is being restored and rebuilding of damage to buildings and urban infrastructure slowly progresses. But out there, beyond the main roads, a vast catastrophe remains. Gone with the wind, some of the most productive forests in Europe. Impacts in the short and medium term to rural economies and industrial wood supply are yet to be seen. The time to clean up the mess has come. It cannot be delayed. But with it, the time to start forest rebuilding must also come. It cannot be forgotten.
Galicia, Northwestern Spain
Fig. 4: Uprooted and stem-broken Radiata Pines in the plateaus of inland Galicia after sustaining winds in the range of 100 to 135 km/h from Storm Klaus. (Click image to enlarge)
Les Landes, Aquitaine, France
Fig. 5: Uprooted Maritime Pines in Les Landes, the largest forest of its kind in Europe, after sustaining exceeding 175 km/h from Storm Klaus. (Photo courtesy of Reuters & 20 Minutes. Click image to enlarge)
Fig. 6: Near total destruction in Pinus pinaster stands to the west of Bordeaux (Les Landes, Aquitaine) is today the typical landscape feature. (Photo courtesy of Reuters & 20 Minutes. Click image to enlarge)
Fig. 7: +50% levelled Pine stands will require starting over from square one. Operations for wood salvage must start before it rots in the floor if some value is to be recovered. (Photo courtesy of SIPA & 20 Minutes. Click image to enlarge)
Fig. 8: Stormwood salvage operations have started in Aquitaine, but with estimated volumes around 50,000,000 m3, the task could be more challenging than by 1999. (Photo courtesy of Reuters & 20 Minutes. Click image to enlarge)
Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France
Fig. 9: Beyond the Maritime Pine forest of Les Landes, both in Aquitaine and the Midi-Pyrenées regions, an important amount of other cultivated forests used to stand in the Eastwards route of Storm Klaus. Among them, some of the finest poplar forests in France. (Photo courtesy of Eurosilvasur, Observatory of the forest-wood-paper resource of the Southern Atlantic Arc Regions).
Fig. 10: Nearly totaly levelled poplar plantations in the Haute-Garonne (Midi-Pyrénées, France) after 75 mm of rainfall in 3 days followed by +170 km/h winds brought by Storm Klaus. (Photo courtesy Howard Lloyd @ Eucalyptus Passion. Click image to enlarge)
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Largest Eucalyptus and Pinus forests in Europe blown down?
From January 23d to 25th 2009 the 200 km/h strong wind and rainstorm Klaus swept accross the Bay of Biscay en route to the Mediterranean Sea, causing widespread damage in Northern Spain and Southern France. 
(See more images of wind damage to trees & infrastructures in Northwestern Spain) Fig. 1: Pathway of Storm Klaus from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, depicting heavily affected areas, roughly corresponding with the most productive cultivated timberlands in Europe. Base satellite image courtesy Meteogalicia.
Maximum wind speeds set a new record for measurements in Galicia, surpassing the effects of cyclone Hortensia in 1984. Peak winds caused the worst impact in the Northern coast, where a big chunk of the largest cultivated Eucalyptus rainforest stands; and in the already heavily damaged higher highlands of Eastern Galicia, slowly recovering from previous damage to pine timberlands caused by the worst snow storm in 20 years, happening back in November and December 2008.
Fig. 2: Maximum wind speed readings by weather stations in Galicia during Storm Klaus (23 to 24th January). Base Map courtesy Meteogalicia.
Catastrophic Damage Areas for Pine & Eucalypt Forests in Galicia (NW Spain)
Cross-checking wind impact cartography with timber resource allocation maps allows to roughly define those areas where winds in excess of 135 km/h have caused heavy to catastrophic damage to tree plantations, windmill farms and varied industrial, communications and urban infrastructures.
Largest Maritime Pine forest in Europe wiped out
After bashing the Northern coast of Spain, the Eye of Klaus impacted continental Europe in the French coast near Bordeaux, causing widespread damage to anything standing in its way to Marseilles. And in its way, the forest of Les Landes de Gascogne, the largest and most productive of its kind in Europe.
(See more images of wind damage to trees & infrastructures in Southern France)
French forestry officers have made a preliminary balance with grim perspectives, as roughly 60% of this impressive wood resource may have been heavily affected, including some 300,000 hectares of pine timberland receiving catastrophic wind damage.
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TREE CLIMBERS MEASURE THE TALLEST TREES IN AFRICA
by Izak van der Merwe (1)
On November 2008 a pair of professional tree climbers scaled the two tallest trees in Africa, also considered to be the tallest planted Eucalyptus trees in the world. Recently dubbed the “Twin Giants of Magoebaskloof”, these Saligna gum trees form part of a magnificent stand of tall trees on the Woodbush State Forest near Haenertsburg planted in 1906. Benefiting from a wet sub-tropical climate and deep soils, they grew to a height not surpassed anywhere in Africa. The tallest tree in this stand was measured by a land surveyor six years ago at a height of 81.5 metres (+265 feet), but the tree toppled over during a storm in September 2006. 
Fig. 1 - Giant Tree Climbing Expedition members at Benvie Arboretum (New Hanover, South Africa) besides the tallest Eucalyptus regnans in Africa, and possibly the tallest cultivated E. regnans in the world. Photo courtesy Izak van der Merwe. (Click image to enlarge)
A panel of experts assisting the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) to identify and protect trees of national conservation significance as Champion Trees, recently shortlisted the giant eucalypts of Woodbush as a priority for protection. Other three giant eucalypts at Benvie Arboretum seven hundred kilometers from here were also shortlisted. These Mountain ash trees (Eucalyptus regnans) have magnificent trunk circumferences of more than 6.8 m (+22 feet), a trunk size not yet seen among any other trees of this kind in South Africa. They were planted more than a hundred years ago by the Scottish emigrant John Geekie, a cabinet maker by trade, who purchased Benvie Farm in 1882 and imported tree seedlings from around the world. Jenny Robinson, a great granddaughter of John, currently manages the arboretum and keeps the family tradition at Intigo Furniture.
The idea for an expedition to find and measure the tallest tree in Africa originated with Professor Brian Bredenkamp (now retired from the University of Stellenbosch but not from tree matters!). Roy Wilson, of the company Stihl - South Africa was approached for sponsorship, and immediately agreed to cover the travel and accommodation expenses for this expedition. They would be accompanied by the professional tree climbers Leon Visser and Charles Green as well as Izak van der Merwe, coordinator of the Champion Tree Project of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
Fig.2 - Location of the Champion Eucalyptus of South Africa measured during the Giant Tree Climbing Expedition
On the morning of 7 November the expedition left OR Tambo airport for Magoebaskloof. At Woodbush State Forest the search for the potential tallest tree that afternoon ended at a giant eucalypt tree very close to the original champion, which now lies on the forest floor next to its broken stump. The long slender bowl of the tallest tree offered difficult climbing, especially in the prevailing wet weather. The tree climbers then decided to first scale a slightly shorter tree next to it. At 70 metres above the ground they threw ropes around the branches of the targeted tree and bridged the gap through a technique known as “skywalking”. The two trees were measured at 79 metres (259 feet) and 78.5 metres (257 feet) respectively, thus crowning the Twin Giants of Magoebaskloof as the tallest measured trees in Africa.
Fig. 3 - Giant Tree Climbing Expedition members at Woodbush State Forest Arboretum (South Africa) climbing one of the Twin Giants of Magoebasklook, the tallest known trees in Africa, and possibly the tallest cultivated Eucalyptus in the world. Photo courtesy Izak van der Merwe. (Click image to enlarge)
The forester of Woodbush State Forest, Mr Tiennie Nieuwoudt of Komatiland Forests, undertook to reroute the Magoebaskloof hiking trail slightly so that hikers and sightseers will gain access to these trees. DWAF, Komatiland Forests and Stihl - South Africa will work together on appropriate signage and information boards to be placed at these trees.
The Benvie Arboretum eucalypt trees were visited on 9 November, and the height of the tallest of these Eucalyptus regnans was measured at 61 metres by the tree climbers. Two of the three trees standing in line were severely damaged by lightning. The tree climbers discovered that a large part of its top had broken off and was lying on top of the crown, so the tree must have been considerably taller in its prime. Measures are being considered to brace the damaged top of this tree to prevent further damage.
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Selective Harvest of Local Landrace Eucalyptus Seed: The Basics
"Eucalyptus seed quality" is a vast concept. It has many angles. And all of them have an effect on the next generation of trees raised somewhere to be planted somewhere else and later yield an expected amount of timber or non timber products, services and/or externalities. Few times so many big volumes are dependant on such a small weight.
Fig. 1 - Selective local landrace Eucalyptus seed harvest methodology. (Click image to enlarge)
When local landraces develop after the introduction of any Eucalyptus species to a new area of the world, the founder (limited) gene pool (more or less diverse depending on circumstances) starts a cycle of recombination. Many times, human action plays a critical role, either consciously or not, on this long term evolution. Without a minimal conscious effort towards the improvement of the local landraces at the time of seed collection and plant propagation, the results tend to be a decline in productivity after a couple of generations, a by-product of inbreeding.
There are at least two parallel paths to try to counterbalance this tendency. A first one is the introduction of well identified "fresh" genetic material brought from either natural Eucalyptus forests back in Australia or from advanced breeding efforts. Preferrably after testing its superior performance against controls of the local landrace, and preferrably as a part of a broader genetic improvement plan focused on the sequential operational deploy of advanced generations. A second one is trying to refine the local landrace and any subsequent newly introduced gene pool by selective seed harvest. Both paths can be combined.
Many times a parallel breeding program is not feasible due to the too many uncertainties of having as single basement the local landrace. Other times a multiple path combination with breeding efforts based on more newly introduced genetic material is not possible either. But in any case tree breeders, foresters and plant propagators alike should be aware of the importance of applying as simple as possible strategies to contain the advance of inbreeding effects in the local landraces around. Harvest the right seed. Harvest it right!
Fig. 2 - Selectively harvested local landrace candidate plus tree Eucalyptus seed ready for cold storage at GIT Forestry Eucalyptus Seed Bank (Click image to enlarge)
"Individual tree selection yields better results when good even aged tree stands of a convenient age are available. This allows efficient comparison between selected trees and control trees. Individual tree selection yields better results in monospecific even aged natural stands, or in tree plantations. This is, at a large distance from any other, the most common method for first generation tree selection and it has been applied worldwide"
Selectively Harvested Eucalyptus Seed from Northwestern Spain
Basic measures to help improve quality in the Eucalyptus seed trade chain
- Silviculturalist: Ask for details on the seed provenance used to raise the plants you are about to buy to start your Eucalyptus timber growing project. Use this criterium to help you select reputable forestry plant nurseries. Regardless of the level of genetic quality in seed, that information should be part of the archives of any serious forestry plant propagation enterprise.
- Nursery man: Source your Eucalyptus seed from reputable seed sources or specialised merchants, and try to get to know as many details as possible on the parent trees and seed collection methods. Plant propagation is just the last step to the release of genes stored in tree seed. Learn beyond propagation techniques, nursery practice and plant sales. Keep good records of the materials you use. And do not try to save on Eucalyptus seed if saving on seed means great looking seedlings but poor timber crops. Save elsewhere. As someone else well said elsewhere: "Good seed does not cost, it pays".
- Seed merchant: Try to focus also on quality of the product you sell and not only in the margin you obtain from your trade. Tree seed is not lettuce seed. And tree seed in general is not the same as tree seed for timber investment projects.Your actions might have a much longer term impact than for seed of annual crops. Learn about what you sell. Depending on your actions, there can be huge differences for the performance of third party timber investments.
- Seed collector: Try to identify candidate Eucalyptus trees to the plus tree status and collect seed from those and any other according to a minimal of technical criteria, so to help avoid the most obvious risks of poor plant performance. This does not mean you should only collect from plus trees if circumstances force to do otherwise to meet the demand. Bulk seed or individual isolated tree seed collection cannot be avoided sometimes, but keeping eyes well open to see the good trees and being well organised to extract different seed lots according to seed quality criteria, even if from the same seed collection effort, is a good measure.
- Parent tree grower: Keep records of the trees you grow, when did you plant them, where did your seedlings come from, and, if possible, where the original seed came from. Keep a book for your trees.The lineage of your trees matters, as it will affect the performance of their progeny, and the progeny of their progeny both in the case you use that seed as your own stock for propagation and in the case you allow its harvest for release to third parties.
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© 2007-2009 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.
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