November 2, 1998 transcript # 258-1
Subject(s): Shenandoah National Park, ice storm
Title:Shenandoah Nutrients
One of the more devastating ice storms in recent memory hit Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park last February, damaging about 70 percent of the trees in the 90 mile-long park. Hi, I’m Dave Thurlow and today on The Weather Notebook, producer James Jones, a regular visitor to the park, explores one way the storm will effect the forest for years to come.
Jim: "I saw aftermath of the storm in early April, before the leaves had come out in the higher elevations of the park. The mountainsides were littered with downed trees, snapped off tree tops, and fallen branches. On the steeper hillsides trees were laid low in rows like fallen dominoes."
Tom: "It look kind of like a giant waved his hand across the top of the mountain and just crushed off all of the tree tops in certain areas."
Jim: "That’s Tom Blount, a research ecologist at the park who was there shortly after the storm hit. I told him recently that it seemed like the forest had suffered a horrible blow. But he said I shouldn’t worry because in some ways, the great ice storm of ‘98 was actually a blessing in disguise."
Tom: "Well, when you have that magnitude of tree litter, limbs, trunks that fall down it actually causes just a huge accumulation, which is tough for the hiker and for the camper, but from an ecological standpoint it provides a quick return of nutrients back into the forest floor. And a lot of the forest floor in the park are on areas that were old fields, and timbered, and often times were burned repeatedly before the Park’s establishment. So this return of nutrients back to the soil is actually of benefit to the park."
Jim: "That means that for a long time the ice storm will play an important role in the life of the park’s forest. We humans won’t notice, but those trees toppled by the storm will be feeding a younger, and perhaps stronger generation of offspring for years to come."
Jim Jones is an independent producer from Washington, DC, and his series on the Shenandoah ice storms airs this week on The Weather Notebook.