A year later, trees planted to renew tornado-scarred land

MARIONVILLE, Mo. -- Years after Kacey, Macey and Cody Fletcher graduate from Marionville High School, trees they helped plant on Jack Rapp's farm should be tall enough to protect cattle from fierce winter winds.

But for the three siblings -- who joined other students from vocational agriculture teacher Mark Estep's classes -- planting the trees was more than just a step toward restoring a landscape ravaged by a tornado. It was personal.

The same twister destroyed their family's home.

A year after the May 4, 2003, tornado that devastated downtown Pierce City, clipped Marionville and then swept on to flatten a part of Battlefield, the Fletcher family has rebuilt its home just beyond a rise on its 91-acre farm.

As younger sister Kacey and brother Macey continued to plant trees, Cody Fletcher paused in his work.

"You just have to keep on keeping on," he said.

Whatever their reasons, the students worked on a 200-foot row of Eastern white pines flanked by two rows of Eastern red cedars at the Rapp farm, a project financed with a $2,600 grant through the Forest Land Enhancement Program, said Natural Resources Conservation Service forester Skip Mourglia.

'It was quite a shock'

Trees that survived the twister resembled the aftermath of a 5-year-old grabbing Mom's scissors and giving himself a haircut: Mangled, their tops shredded and their natural symmetry turned jagged.

"It was quite a shock to come home and see what we had left," said Jack Rapp, who returned from church that Sunday evening to find his home undamaged but many of his trees destroyed.

As Lawrence County's conservationist farmer in 2002, Rapp has used other cost-sharing programs, so convincing him to participate in the FLEP program wasn't difficult, Mourglia said.

Rapp agreed to prepare a planting area by digging holes for the 2-foot-tall trees, obtaining them from a St. Louis-area nursery, and fencing the area from cattle until the trees are tall enough.

The Marionville High FFA also will benefit, Mourglia said. The group will get $5 for each tree planted, she told Estep's students, most of them FFA members.

Along with forming a windbreak, the trees will lessen erosion from the slope they were planted on, and will provide some wildlife habitat similar to the plantings near Honey Creek that Rapp put in after the tornado to create bobwhite quail habitat, she said.

Mourglia said she realizes people intent on cleaning fields and rebuilding homes and outbuildings might not rank planting trees high on a to-do list. But the tree-planting session might have started some students thinking about doing something, she said.

It's unlikely there will be a widespread effort to restore mangled forestland, Missouri Division of Forestry district forester Steven Laval of Lebanon said.

As for woodland restoration, that's a low priority for landowners, he said.

Many forests will regenerate themselves, particularly if they are oak forests where sprouts grow quickly, he said.

Conservation Department geographic information systems specialist B.J. Gorlinsky used aerial views of the tornado damage and computer technology to map the extent of forest damage.

Although the Pierce City tornado damaged 2,193 acres of forestland, the tornado that ran from west of Stockton to near Camden County ravaged over 20,000 acres of woodland, he said.

The Conservation Department is working with other agencies and people in Pierce City and Stockton to restore trees in public areas, such as parks and cemeteries, department landscape architect Tim Frevert said.

Tornados and opportunities

In Pierce City, the department is working with the city to restore creekside tree buffers in the city park the tornado destroyed, he said.

As for the hundreds of trees damaged on private property, replacing them is up to the property owner, although Conservation Department foresters can offer advice, Frevert said.

Planting 8- to 10-foot-tall trees in public areas such as parks means it will be years before local people consider the new trees part of the landscape, he said.

"If I were just to pull a number out of the air, [it will be] 10 years or so before the trees really start to become a feature that becomes quite noticeable," he said.

Despite the destruction, Mourglia sees the tornadoes as leaving opportunities to plant trees better suited to a site or to plant wildlife habitat.

"Sometimes, these offer opportunities to go back in and do it the way you want to," she said.