Hurricane Isaias damaged more than 2.5 million tons of timber valued at more than $33.5 million in southwest Alabama, according to a preliminary aerial assessment by the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC).

The Category 2 storm made landfall near Destin, Fla. on October 9 with maximum sustained winds of 105 MPH.

AFC pilots surveyed the affected region on October 13 and mapped a path of approximately 36 miles long and up to seven miles wide. Within the 154,783-acre impacted area, roughly 105,000 acres were forested, including 64,795 acres of forestland and 40,805 acres of woody wetlands.

“While we are thankful the damage was not as extensive as it could have been, these losses are still devastating for Alabama landowners,” Alabama State Forester Rick Oates said in a press release. “Growing timber is a long-term investment, requiring decades of hard work, careful management and financial commitment.”

Dan Chappell, coordinator of the AFC’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, says the heaviest damage was concentrated in a narrow band through the heart of Escambia County, across Interstate 65 in Conecuh County and into parts of Monroe County. The AFC has not received reports of widespread forest damage in other counties.

The AFC used a new damage-rating system shared across the U.S. South and designed to analyze regional disasters consistently across state lines. Aerial spotters sorted damage into one of three categories: light (0–15%), moderate (16–50%) or severe (51–100%). The AFC then quantified timber damage by converting those ratings into tonnage and dollar estimates using FIA plot data. 

“It’s less precise but more accurate overall,” Chappell said. “Spotters work from about 2,000 feet of elevation at 130 miles per hour, and the broader categories keep them from having to pinpoint an exact percentage. Most of the damaged observation points fell within the moderate category, and a little over a quarter were rated severe. Overall, damage averaged near 40%.”

No federal disaster funding for timber losses has been announced to date, and the USDA Forest Service has not yet said whether it will activate a damage protocol. Chappell says the AFC can conduct a post-disaster FIA ground survey if requested by federal officials. 

“We all know the industry is not in a great time across its product classes,” Chappell said. “Demand for finished products is flat, so a surge of salvage wood is likely to drive stumpage values down. Salvage is tough.”

The AFC recommends that affected landowners consult a registered forester for an on-the-ground assessment before making salvage decisions. The commission’s website has tools for finding forestry professionals by service and county, and the AFC encourages landowners to utilize USDA Forest Service resources on storm recovery and timber casualty-loss tax tips.

BASF Corp. planned its new MDI plant inauguration celebration in Geismar, La. in November. Representing a nearly $1 billion investment, the event markes the completion of BASF’s multi-year MDI expansion project and reinforces the company’s long-term commitment to U.S. manufacturing, Louisiana manufacturing, and the North American polyurethanes market.

BASF broke ground on the third and final phase of the methylene diphenyl disocyanate (MDI) expansion project at its Verbund site in Geismar in early 2023. The company statedit will increase production capacity to approximately 600,000 metric tons per year by the middle of the decade to support the ongoing growth of its North American MDI customers.

The investment for the final expansion phase amounted to $780 million. Including the first and second phases, the investment volume totals around $1 billion, making the MDI expansion project BASF’s largest wholly owned investment in North America.

Kicked off in 2018, the expansion project followed a staggered approach. First, a new MDI synthesis unit was put in operation in October 2020. The second phase, which started operations in 2021, expanded several existing upstream units. The third and final phase added new upstream units and a splitter.  

The U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities have announced the Beta launch of the Forestry Analytics for Carbon Tracking (FACT) platform, a science-based platform that addresses the growing challenge and need for reliable forest sector carbon data at no cost to users.

Landowners and businesses face increasing pressure to report and communicate carbon information, but existing data can be fragmented, inconsistent, and costly to aggregate. FACT compiles previously siloed public and private data into one free, accessible, and transparent place, strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. forest products in domestic and global markets.

The FACT Beta launch serves as a working release and active improvement period during which the platform will continue to be optimized, functionality will evolve, and new information will be incorporated. Valuable input gathered during this stage will shape the platform ahead of its full Version 1 release, which is planned for summer 2027.

“Forest and harvested wood product carbon data has been scattered across public and private sources for years, making it challenging for landowners, manufacturers, and researchers to work from a consistent foundation of information,” says Pete Madden, President and CEO of the Endowment. “FACT will make standardized, transparent data easier to access and use, strengthening the competitiveness of American forest products while supporting U.S. jobs and rural economies.”

FACT will complement tools and datasets people already use across the forest products value chain rather than replacing them. 

The platform is being designed to:

• Provide forest land managers with a standardized method to convert their forest inventories to carbon stocks and create small area carbon estimations.  

• Give harvested wood product manufacturers the tools to determine and report the carbon impacts of their operations.

• Support the consideration of embodied and displaced carbon estimates in design and architectural applications.

• Advance research by identifying gaps in primary carbon data.

As forest carbon research advances and published life cycle assessments and environmental product declarations are updated, FACT will continue incorporating new information. This approach will allow the platform to evolve as science, data, and user needs change.

FACT is being developed through a public-private effort led by the Endowment, the Forest Service, and the forest sector, with input from scientists, engineers, and practitioners. The effort is supported through a collaborative agreement including the American Forest Foundation, American Wood Council, Composite Panel Assn., Decorative Hardwoods Association, Hardwood Federation, Hardwood Manufacturers Assn., National Alliance of Forest Owners, National Hardwood Lumber Assn., National Wood Flooring Assn., and Woodpack Global.

To explore the FACT Beta and test its tools, visit forestryanalytics.org.