Michael Damage

[DanG]

Yesterday I was travelling a route I take regularly. I passed by a pine plantation that has recently undergone a second thinning. It was a beautiful stand of pines with small crowns and long straight stems, every tree as identical as a field of corn. I noticed that very few trees were broken or uprooted, but every single tree was bent into a long sweeping arc so that the crown tips are almost horizontal. I'm wondering if they will eventually straighten back up or are they just pulpwood now? I guess I'll see for myself if the Good Lord lets me stick around a while, but I thought I would give the Foresters a shot at it. ;)

[thecfarm]

No forester here,but I wonder if the bark is cracked and will let moisture in.

[nativewolf]

Mostly they straighten up.  However, if the fibers are  broken all bets off.

[realzed]

Saw somewhat the same thing when I was in Hawaii a few years back. Apparently according to the regulars - all of the taller spruce-type trees they had on Kauai were badly bent but over a few years most managed to pretty much straighten themselves back up.
The reason I originally asked about the trees wasn't because of the straightness or height of them - but the fact that most if not all of the branches were pretty much all gone with the exception often of just the last few feet of the tree actually having any short foliage remaining. I was told the hurricane (typhoon?) they had a few years previous to my visit in 2014 had them bent over and stripped so badly many islanders figured they wouldn't survive.
What was left after the wind stopped was just the smallest branches near the tops which I guess were the most flexible and even then they had been shaken so badly by the wind that they all ended up with a strangely directional foliage like they had been pruned like a 'Mohawk' hairdo..
Wish I had taken some pictures specific to many of them - but too many other beautiful things to take photos of, took priority at the time and I didn't..!
 

[Texas Ranger]

Saw some of that after Ike, most straightened back up.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Back in Florida days I used to go to the Forest Service shooting range in the Ocala NF.
One of the pine plantations we passed was bent like you describe.
Went by there for 3 winters and they never straightened up in that time period.
I went to FS headquarters but the gal who was there had no idea as to what had bent them.

[lxskllr]

If they straighten, does it affect structural integrity one way or the other if made into building material?

[DanG]

Well we will never know if any of our speculation was  accurate.  I passed by there yesterday and the whole stand has been clearcut.  They must have brought in a big chipper because I don't think they could have hauled those logs out by truck as curved as they were.

[mike_belben]

My mother still has no heat and a tarped half a house.  Said theres a lot of people in tents and campers and still no fema, no builders, not enough building materials and trees everywhere. Sounds like it was a doozy.  Sure didnt get the attention of katrina.