"I've had to open my mind and think in a different time frame," Gresham said. "We're all accustomed to turning on a computer and 'whoom' you've got what you need right then.
"But forest processes work on a longer time scale. Ten years is a very short time frame in a tree's life. A loblolly pine has a life span of 130 years and there are live oaks down here that are a couple of hundred years old. If we stick around for another 100 years, we might see a very similar forest to what was here before Hugo."
Another observation that has emerged from the study is that disturbance, whether from a hurricane or from a single tree dying, is a natural part of forest dynamics. "It's not rare or unnatural, it's just a normal part of nature's process and the forest's development," Gresham said.
The only remaining evidence of Hugo today is the debris of fallen trees and logs that now provide habitat for wildlife and support the growth of other plants by releasing nutrients into the soil.
Three species of trees weathered the hurricane with less damage than others, Gresham said. Not surprisingly, they are the trees most closely identified with the Lowcountry's coastal plain: live oak, cypress and long leaf pine. These are the species that are most likely to survive when hurricanes hit.
The live oak is low and squat, with wood as hard as steel, so it keeps
its head down and lets others take the brunt of the winds, Gresham said. The
cypress has a deciduous needle, so Hugo's first gusts of wind in September blew
off the n
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Contact: Debbie Dalhouse
debbie.dalhouse@pubaff.clemson.edu
864-656-0937
Clemson University
17-Sep-1999