The May 8, 2009 "Super Derecho" was one of the most intense and unusual derechos ever observed. The wind storm produced significant and often continuous damage over a broad swath from the high plains of western Kansas to the foothills of the Appalachians in eastern Kentucky. Multiple wind gusts in excess of 70 mph and isolated gusts over 90 mph were measured along its path. The associated convective system exhibited numerous small-scale bow echoes, a well-defined larger-scale bow, and numerous small-scale vortices with tornadoes. In addition, flash flooding was widespread on the northern fringe of the system, especially in Missouri.
Locally, the storms effects were...Although this tornado gouged a wide trail, by far the most storm damage occurred further north along the main derecho path, which ran from west to east through Dent, Shannon, Texas, Reynolds, Iron, Madison and Bollinger counties. During the first days afterward, linemen for rural electric cooperatives along the main derecho path worked without sleep for long hours. Officials with Intercounty Electric initially thought all lights would be on in a couple of days for the 10,000 without power, one-third of their total membership. They were wrong. Some were without power for weeks. In all, some 80,000 rural electric cooperative members were without power in Missouri, according to the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives....Landowners say they felt overwhelmed and depressed as they struggled to remove piles of debris and tried to sell their tumbled trees...Loggers were overbooked. Demand for building materials was low due to the recession. The storm created a local timber glut, so everyone trying to sell uprooted timber had to accept low prices...Harvest of derecho blowdown lasted for several years because many fallen trees were partially rooted, prolonging their lives. But for loggers, the benefits of steady work was offset by danger. For the first two or three months, harvesting blowdown was the most dangerous work that life-long loggers had ever done...Four big landholdings sustained heavy forest damage from the derecho. One of them, the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, did not salvage timber due to restrictions in its enabling legislation. The 140,000-acre, privately held Pioneer Forest did not face bureaucratic hurdles, so foresters acted quickly to salvage blowdown on 22,000 acres of its land, of which 7,000 were catastrophically damaged. Within days, they secured extra logging crews, dropped timber prices, and streamlined sales processes, selling by weight rather than measuring volumes with a timber cruise. It took them 2.5 years to salvage all felled timber. The Missouri Department of Conservation had nearly 8,000 catastrophically damaged acres within the 28,000 acres that the agency salvaged. MDC foresters also moved promptly and streamlined by selling by weight. MDC bid out more than 50 timber sales, which took 18 months to complete. The windstorm wreaked the most havoc on the Mark Twain National Forest, catastrophically damaging 29,000 acres. The Forest Service had salvaged about 18,000 acres as of November 2013, which was estimated as being only about one-third of damaged trees on its land. The Missouri governor’s office assessed damage to public property and infrastructure at $48.7 million.
The Trail....Pine Ridge Trail follows a “C” shape with trailheads on either end. The trail begins near the stone picnic shelter, which was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The trail then crosses the stone and concrete footbridge before traveling uphill into the 25-acre Montauk Upland Forest Natural Area. This natural area represents a good example of a mature pine-oak-hickory woodland. At the top of the hill, the trail levels out, crosses Highway 119 and continues through mature stands of shortleaf pines, the only pine native to Missouri. The trail crosses the road again and gradually descends until you get to the bottom of a ravine. After crossing a footbridge, the trail goes up a steep grade to a summit with scenic views. It is a good place to take a break to enjoy the scenery. The trail begins to descend again and offers great views of the areas fed by Bluff Spring, Montauk Lake and the wetland area. Along the trail, a variety of flowering plants and fleeting glimpses of wildlife are common.
Permission Granted by Park Resource Manager, Thanks Doug!!!