By Clint Thompson
Chuck Williams, director of the Georgia Forestry Commission, believes the Farm Recovery Block Grants for Georgia farmers and forest landowners will aid an industry devastated by Hurricane Michael in 2018 but not make it whole.
“In Southwest Georgia, so many of the landowners that suffered timber damage were also row crop and cattle farmers that suffered a double whammy. I think what this will do as commissioner (Gary) Black alluded to earlier this afternoon in his press conference is that this will not make anybody whole but this will help,” said Williams at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia where Black made the announcement.
According to the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) Press Release , the GDA will begin accepting online applications for the $347 million in block grant funds on March 18. Georgia farmers and forest landowners in 95 eligible counties who suffered losses to beef, dairy, fruit and vegetable, pecan, poultry, timber, and uninsured infrastructure will need to enroll in the recovery program at farmrecovery.com.
The destruction to Georgia’s timber industry was catastrophic. Williams said there were 1.5 million log trucks of wood on the ground in just four hours when the hurricane moved through Georgia on Oct. 10. Between 10% to 20% was salvaged for commercial salvage, while the rest is still in the woods creating potential insect issues and wildfire issues.
Of the $2.5 billion in losses dealt to Georgia’s agricultural sector following the storm, timber producers were dealt $763 million in losses, according to estimates from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents and agricultural economists..
What the storm may have done is change landowners’ perception of the timber industry and help them realize their commodity is not immune from nature’s fury.
“I think over the years we’ve maybe been lulled into a sense of complacency that timber was an asset or commodity, that if you didn’t need the income now or you didn’t like the prices now, just leave it on the stump and let it grow a few more years. It was basically a safe asset,” Williams said. “We had some landowners that told us they thought that. They thought that stand of timber was bullet proof and the fact that they lost it in a span of four hours may change how they view timber.
“We hope that once emotions subside and we think they are, that landowners, where forestry and timber fit their operation, that they will realize this was a very unusual act of God and for a lot of our lands all across Georgia, that forestry and timber are still a very viable option to how to make that land productive.”
For more information and a guide to help prepare applicants for enrollment please visit, farmrecovery.com.
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