Trees suffer in '98 ice storms.

Officials say it could be months before they have a definitive tally of the destruction wreaked by the January ice storm that toppled life as Northeasterners knew it. The storm claimed more than 20 lives and racked up damage totals that included more than 50 percent of Maine's forested areas and caused one Canadian city to redirect its snowplows to clear away trees.

"This storm was one of the bigger natural forest events we've seen this century," says Chuck Gadzick, director of Maine's Forest Service (MFS).

The storm coated trees in parts of the U.S. and Canada with a deadly crust of ice two to three inches thick. Hardest hit were New England, northern New York, Quebec, eastern Ontario, and Canada's Atlantic Provinces.

In Maine, 11.3 million acres - more than half the state's forested areas - were affected, with half suffering moderate to severe damage. More than 400 municipalities reported tree damage, and MFS estimates a loss of more than $300 million from downed timber.

Both ornamentals, which are particularly ill-suited to Maine's rugged climate, and indigenous species took a beating. Softwoods such as pine, spruce, and fir fared better, reports Gadzik.

"Where the damage was light, just the most vulnerable trees suffered; where it was heaviest, they all suffered," Gadzik says. But he cautions against generalizing. "Each species reacts differently. For example, sugar maple will rebuild slower than other maples. It's going to take a while to assess the damage."

Canada's forests met a similar fate: 70,000 trees were killed on Mount Royal in Montreal; 30,000 100-year-old trees were destroyed in urban Kingston; and an estimated 39,000 Ottowan trees will require life-sustaining surgery.

"There isn't a neighborhood here that hasn't been affected," Kingston Mayor Gary Bennett says. "It's so bad here, we have snowplows clearing away trees, not snow, from the roads."

Seaton Findlay, an AMERICAN FORESTS member active in urban forestry issues, reports that 15- to 20-year-old urban street and park trees suffered the worst damage in his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. "The ice storm was of such proportions that it is going to have an impact on future species selection for street trees," says Findlay.

In the U.S. President Clinton declared several communities disaster areas, making them eligible for federal aid. Unfortunately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) no longer provides disaster funds for tree planting. Public and private organizations have stepped in to offer assistance.

American Forests and corporate partner Eddie Bauer are providing Global ReLeaf Forest funding through Tree Canada's Operation ReLeaf. The money will help with efforts to restore damaged tree canopy in eastern Canada.

The Forest Service's state and private forestry division will provide $725,000 to New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to conduct detailed ground assessments quantifying the nature and extent of tree damage. That, says Gadzik, is key to predicting tree decay in the coming years.

As far as residents are concerned, help can't come too soon. "The city will never look the same," said the Ottawa Citizen in a recent editorial. "It will be 20 or 30 years before the city looks anything like it used to."