Oh my God!!! This bureaucrat from FEMA thinks dead trees are a good thing because it means a casino isn't sitting on your house? What is it with these people. I'm sure that if a dead pine tree was sitting in Mr. Brezany's yard he would think differently. Why does FEMA think it has to punish these people because they had the misfortune to live in the path of a hurricane. FEMA can't help displaced persons, they can't protect our borders, just what exactly is it that they can do?

Let the tree people handleit. They can prosece some or most of the woood. I am not as smart as most focks. But You knpow there mis a mill some where close ship and sale all the tree's so You can plant new one's.

Now THIS sounds more like something the Sierra Club needs to be involving itself with, instead of the question of formaldehyde in FEMA trailers. Maybe they could use the dead pine trees to build all the FEMA trailer residents a formaldehyde-free log cabin! That would get rid of TWO problems with one solution!

You can get a good chainsaw for 500 bucks. Go cut these trees down yourself if they are dead and threatening your property, family, or livelihood.

To a certain extent, the Government should help out with the damage, but come on people. You have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps at some point.

This is a good example of how Americans have become candy-asses over the past 50 years. Everyone expects others to do the hard, manual labor.

this is a prime example of stupidity gone awry. Does anyone really believe FEMA anymore with the rules and decisions they make. FEMA was a pretty good agency for quite a long time and it seems they lost their bearing now. What other choices are there? I personally think we should take the almost half trillion dollars we have spent in IRAQ and spend it on the Gulf Coast. Nearly every inch from Galveston to Fort Myers and Naples has been hit by something in the last few years. We see these articles along side ones about the absolute waste of our Tax dollars with sole source "Security" related contracts and I wonder whats next. Will someone in charge in Washington wake up and do their dadgum job? Seems that every where we look there is nothing but PRIME examples of incompetence in government starting at 1600 Penn. Ave. Someone chack and see if there is even anyone there or if the gross acts of stupidity and incompetence are actually being done from some ritzy resort at our expense?

This story highlights the need to involve professional-certified arborists in making decisions about the trees at the local level and at the Federal level. What training and expertise do FEMA or the Corp of Engineers have in assessing trees? This same problem has been happening for years on a much smaller scale in local municialities. Cities and towns cannot get appropriate aid from FEMA because of the ridiculous rules they have in place to remove trees, and yet cities cannot afford to do the clean-up on their own. It creates a huge dilemma and puts citizens at risk.

I recently came back from a trip to MS. I volunteered my time at a lumber mill set up by the Lakeshore Baptist church in Waveland MS. They are turning many of those trees into free lumber for rebuilding. Portable mills cost about 10 to 15k and additional units and help is needed. To actually use the dead trees for lumber is a solution to rid the area of a portion of the trees. It would be an outstanding gesture if one of the big lumber companies would donate some of their time and equipment to help out. If anyone has contacts at a big mill it might be a good idea to contact them about this problem. It could be good PR for the company

After Katrina our family - 4th generation loggers - tried to help. We were told in no uncertian terms to "GO HOME". There is a lot to be learned from the "mismanagement" of the pine plantations in this area. Not only are the private landowners learning this "hard" lesson, the government and large forest management/investment companies will also have a hard time dealing with the "Southern Pine Beetle".

Again, it's such a shame that this renewable resource is not being "used" to begain with - especially when it is in a "clean-up" area. The Pine Beetle loves to eat - our government has found a great way to make sure they are not hungry. If you live in the south, you may have a visitor one day - if you have Pine trees.

So, are these pine trees on private property? If they are, why is everone looking for a government hand out? Thinning trees seems to me to be a personal responsiblity of the land owner -- or am I missing something here?

Make Money!!!!!! Have loggers to come remove it and sell it to the sawmill. It will provide jobs and be a source of income for the homeowners.

Why isn't the forestry industry allowed to come take them down for making lumber or just give it to them so some good can come out of this mess. You could get a lot of wood out of the ones that aren't diseased and you would get them taken down;even if they aren't dead or have a possibility of coming back. If the wait is too long then all of them will be no good.

Please... oh please... Have the people not been through enough without all of this bull from the goverment about the trees. It has been almost a year since katrina, If the trees have not come back by now they will not come back. Or if by some chance they live, they will be sick, and a danger if another storm comes through. We the people will have to come together again and take out some trees if they are on YOUR PROPERTY and be prepared for winter. Burn it in your fireplace or woodheater, or have bon fires. With the price of gas who can afford to go anywhere any way.

As a forester who works with So. pines, I agree with Yarborough, most of these pines - loblolly, slash, and longleaf, are dead. Pines often recover foliage that is lost from “scorch” or heated air associated with Rx or wild fires. Besides fire-induced defoliation, and young seedlings stripped by sawfly larvae, I have never seen denuded pines “leaf out” and recover. Live oaks yes. Pines no. Also, the article was accurate in assigning continuing mortality to pine beetles. When stressed - and these trees are severely stressed, So. pine, ipps, and black turpentine beetles continue to kill pines for months or years after events like hurricanes or wild fires.
Worries about large dead trees being a fire hazard are over-stated. These are what we call “coarse woody debris”. For the most part, the boles or logs don’t contribute to the spread of wild fire. It is the fine woody debris (shrubs & branches), pine needles, and herbaceous growth that you have to worry about.
For a sure sign that a pine is dead and not coming back, check to see if the bark is “slipping.” When a pine tree dies, the bark starts falling off with a few months. You don’t even have to look at the crown to tell if trees are alive, just look for plates of bark falling off the bole.
Also, if you see sawdust at the base of the tree, then the tree is being attacked by pine beetles. A ring of sawdust probably means death is imminent.
We just hosted seven workshops across So. MS focusing on hurricane recovery and management of damaged stands. For more information contact your local USDA Farm Service Center or The Longleaf Alliance.

You can sell these Trees to Armstrong Cork and paper Company - pay $1,500? rediculous... These trees will be harvested for their value by people from Georgia - give me a chance. Pay me for the Equipment Costs and i will come and harvest them and NO COST!

What about the local response? Why do people always look to the federal government for help. where is the city, the county or state? Stop pointing fingers to DC and get YOUR local and state politicians to do their job!

FWIW, taking down a relatively large pine tree like the one which is depicted is not going to be as easy as some have painted it to be. It won't be a picnic DIY job if it's in close proximity to wires as in the photo. That's partially why the predatory prices are in effect now. Anyone saying that the government should not assist (at least a relief payment for multiple dangerous dead trees) in this case needs a reality check. It's not always as simple as 'it's on private property so why should the government be expected to pay'. This argument holds less water the poorer an area is, and how widespread and catastrophic damage to the environment is clearly.

Our fore-fathers forged this country by blazing trails cutting down trees. I remember reading about the Cumberland Gap in grade school. Why not allow a contractor come in and harvest all the trees and put 50% of the revenue back into the community! Come on Americans stand up and shoulder together as in past history!!!

I have a tough time believing what the author is shoveling out. If we believe the author, the U.S. has transitioned from a nation of self-reliant individuals into a welfare state where everyone sits on their hands waiting for the gov't to solve all of their problems. What I suspect is that the vast majority of the individuals there have taken matters into their own hands and taken down the trees. What I also suspect is that the author found one or two mamby-pamby, limp-wristed, light-weights who fit her world-view and that is all that it takes to create something from nothing. Let me propose an alternate headline, "Individuals Cut Trees for Firewood - The Upside of Katrina".

Hatchets are really cheap, just make a wedge the side you want it to fall, and chop on the other side. Do people not have $20 for a hatachet? chop them down, borrow your neighbors saw, and do it yourself. Some people. Whine Whine Whine

What is the matter with people? Is this not a total responsibility for the property owner for trees on their property. Tax payers do not owe one dime through FEMA to pay for storm damage of any kind on private property. You buy the property then you insure or otherwise assume responsibility for everything on it. Public property is just that and government is responsible for it and it alone, not the private property. Yeah, I have been through these storms just like many other people but I take care of my own property one way or the other. For example, I removed 85 pine trees from my yard plus other kinds at my own expense and government never spent one dime on any of this from start to finish. So, I am very well qualified to make these judgments and pay my own way in this uncertain world we live in.

A group from my school went to Mississippi this last spring break to help out with cleanup and relief. I can say first-hand that what is really needed in this sort of situation is volenteers. Sending money isn't nearly as effective, because most of it is lost in beuracracy, or eaten up by the guys charging $1500 to take down a tree.
A vast amount of free labor is what will clean up the mess and fix the problem. I know it isn't always possible to leave life and work for any real period of time, especially if it means traveling cross country. But if you are in such a position as to help out, even for a day or two, the work you do for free will save litterally hundreds of dollars, if it would ever be done in the first place, not to mention the lives it could possibly save.
I went with a group at college, but there are still churches and other charitable orginizations planning trips like this. And if you can't find one, take the innitive yourself; roadtrips are fun!

When did everything become the federal government's problem? Here's a novel idea: How about the local government get rid of the trees? When are people going to be responsible themselves and stop waiting for the government to bail them out? This country has forgotten what made it great: self-reliance.

I think that the businesses that would have orginally cut down a tree for $200 and are now charging $1500 should just be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of the sitution.

The main reason that there has to be Government involvement is that most trees in residential neighborhoods will fall on utility wires and poles if just cut down.

The Government shouldn't have to pay for the removal, but he public utilities should be required to facilitate removal of the trees by having crews available to lower and raise wires so that trees can be felled.

Sure, lumber companies will take many whole trees, but you will be hard pressed to find a tree that has to be cut away in sections and lowered by pullies because it cannot just be chopped down. And lowering a tree in that fashion is too dangerous fro the average chainsaw-owning homeowner.

When a tree in my front yard blew partially down, it was MY responsibility to take it down(or HAVE it taken down) and dispose of it. It wasn't the governments responsibility, it was MINE. We have become a society of people who think EVERYTHING should be handed out by the government, our food, clothing, shelter, EVERYTHING!!!! It's not the government's responsibility to feed me, clothe me, or remove dead trees from my yard. Where there is a will(this may be the problem), there is ALWAYS a way.