Ailey, GA |

When the sun rose on the morning after Hurricane Helene, many in Southeast Georgia woke up to what can only be described as devastation, as mother nature left her mark on the region. In that moment however, many sprang into action, agencies from all over, like the Georgia Forestry Commission, who had teams in place ready to do whatever is necessary to assist the region.

“When our response began, it started small and grew as the incident grew. As requests started coming in from counties, we partner with a lot of other state and federal agencies to form the best response that we could. We work closely with GEMA, D.O.T., Georgia Department Natural Resources, but throughout the response, the peak of our response was about 247 personnel, ten chainsaw strike teams, and 24 heavy equipment teams, consisting mostly of our bulldozers as you see behind me,” says Gabe Outlaw, Region 4 Manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission.

From there, that’s when the recovery process began, as crews shifted their focus and set out to access the damage in the affected areas – a process that allows them to know how to begin to best assist landowners in the wake of such wide-spread damage.

“Soon after, the week after the hurricane hit, we started a timber damage assessment; driving around looking at what areas were hit hardest. We can use these numbers to determine what areas of the state need the assistance and we can then get on the ground with landowners, help them with our federal partners, help people start over and get them set in the right way,” says Matthew O’Connor, Region 4 Forester for GFC.

After assessing the damage, officials are saying that Hurricane Helene traversed 8.9 million acres of forest land, equating to what is being estimated at almost 1.3 billion dollars as the region is a huge timber producing area, with many “prime timber” stands now having to be salvaged for a fraction of what they were worth.

“Forestry is one of the biggest economic drivers, it employs many, many people here in these local counties and brings in a lot of money to the local economy. So, this devastation obviously is going to send shockwaves throughout the communities here. So, the hardest hit stands were the most variable stands. So, landowners are seeing their most valuable stands devastated with fifty percent or more loss. That requires a salvage operation where landowners only getting cents on the dollar for what they originally would have got,” says O’Connor.

According to O’Connor, this is a storm that will no doubt have huge, long-lasting affects for years to come for forest landowners, as he says many will have to start completely over by salvaging and replanting, meaning it will be at least 15 years before their stands are profitable again.

“Not only have they just lost their long-term investment, they’re having to start over from ground zero and to grow a stand of timber, to get to where it’s merchable, where they can make money back off it as fifteen, twenty years time. So, this is this is a very long-term issue and will have ramifications for many, many years,” says O’Connor.

By: John Holcomb

Uvalda, GA |

Here in Southeast Georgia, this is the heartbreaking scene that pecan producers in the region woke up to after Hurricane Helene’s destructive march through the state. As you can see, pecan orchards like one, were almost completely leveled by winds of more than 100 miles an hour that toppled trees that producers have worked so hard to grow over the last decade, and were full of this season’s crop.

“This type of wind that occurred at this location, which is far into the state of Georgia, lower Montgomery County was 109mph, was the recording. With a hurricane, your damage actually comes not just from the wind, but from the rain. And everybody knows we were brought so much rain. The square foot of the canopy that’s extended, that picks up the wind, it just blows these trees straight over and in a hurricane, a lot of times we’ll see thirty percent tree loss and we think that’s so bad, forty, sometimes fifty, but again, at this location we’re at the eighty percent tree loss for trees more than ten years old,” says Andrew Sawyer, Area Pecan Agent.

What makes this storm so devastating is the timing, as producers were already struggling as inputs have driven up their cost of production, as well as the fact that the industry itself has was in the midst of transitioning to different, more sustainable varieties.

“For the industry as a whole, we were already struggling. We had the price issues with pecans the last few years. That’s been really hurt by the cost of the inputs. Treatments, our fungicide programs, these are desirable, these have a lot of disease. So, they’ve had a very strong fungicide program; there have been more than ten sprays in this orchard this year, but on the other side of the road from me is a different variety that doesn’t have as much spray. So, the state of Georgia, was already involved in switching orchards, if you will, from high management varieties to low management varieties. These are varieties that still have great production and kernel quality, but we were in that transition. This storm, for all that they’ve gone through, really, really has added to the difficulties,” says Sawyer.

However, the immediate effect is not what’s most concerning, as storms like this one, and damage like this has a lasting impact, as producers will have no choice but to replant, and will have to wait at least seven years for those trees to start producing.

“Normal storm events, we worry about losing some trees and then losing the crop for this year, but with the tree, we can have another crop next year. In a situation like this, if the trees are leaning just forty-five degrees, thirty degrees at this age, their roots are so damaged they won’t come back and they won’t be able to make a crop in a situation like this. You don’t come back with a crop next year. If you replant, which is the only option, we’re not looking for a crop here until now, seven, eight, nine years from now,” says Sawyer.

By: John Holcomb

Alma, GA |

Imagine working your entire life for something and then, in what feels like an instant, it gets destroyed by a hurricane. For some, that’s hard to imagine, however, for many across southeast Georgia, like Daniel Johnson, a row crop farmer in Pierce County, it very much is a reality.

“We’ve got damage. We’ve got some home damage. We’ve got shelter damage to back of barn damage. The good thing is, my family’s safe; that’s what it’s all about. We can replace material things, but the family’s safe, but we pray for everybody’s safety and maybe everything can get back to normal. You know, I don’t know what normal is anymore, but agriculture is hurting. The community’s hurting as a whole. Agriculture was already hurting because of crop prices and input costs, but now we’ve took a double hit, and Tropical Storm Debbie was pretty devastating to us for our crops and I never dreamed it all would come at one time, you know, 30 days apart you might as well say,” says Daniel Johnson, Owner of DL Johnson Farms.

According to Johnson, what makes this storm so devastating is how it basically kicked farmers when they were already down, as he says the year as a whole has been horrific, and now, as you can see, what crop they have been able to grow, has now been blown away.

“Cotton was already at a point that it was unprofitable. So, every bowl we could pick was going to be a plus for us and now we don’t have it. I think we’ll still be able to pick some cotton, some is probably not going to be harvestable, some of this has already been through drowning, droughts, and tropical storms. So, we’re beat from the get go. What people don’t understand is twenty years ago, commodity prices were the same as they are today, if not better,” says Johnson.

For now, Johnson says he has no choice but to continue on, as this year’s peanuts are just days away from being ready to harvest, but for cotton, he says it’s too early to tell if he’ll be able to or if it’s even worth harvesting.

“It’s going to be a wait and see. If we had an average crop, we’re forty, fifty percent less than what we had. There again, if we can save some of it, but is it going to cost more to save it than we’re going to make? We know that’s going to happen already. If we picked the fool crop, we were going to lose money, but we got to make the best of it and just hope the economy turns and things change. It kind of takes the words away from me, because you just don’t know sometimes what to think or what to do,” says Johnson.

However, despite the devastation, Johnson is still hopeful and optimistic everything will work out for them in the end.

“It’s just a wait and see game. We hope we all come out better than what we are, but we’ll overcome it somehow. This ain’t the first rodeo. We’ve had storms before but nothing like a year like this, let’s just say that,” says Johnson.

By: John Holcomb

Lakeland, GA |

Take a ride through any rural community in Southeast Georgia and it’s impossible to miss the utter destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Perhaps no industry was more impacted than agriculture, as the more than one hundred mile an hour wind gusts laid waste to any and all fields in its path.

“Utter devastation, utter devastation. We’ve seen pecan growers that have lost half their trees. We’ve seen cotton growers that have lost their entire crops. We’ve seen blueberry growers that have just been decimated. We’ve seen produce growers that have been decimated and it’s just utter devastation. It’s heart breaking,” says Russ Goodman, Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee.

With the damage being so extensive on these farms, the financial ramifications are likely to be felt for many years to come.

“This farm here next year had a potential of doing 350-400 thousand pounds on this one farm. We have another fifty acres that was new plantings and those also have been wiped out. It’s sickening. Not going to cry about it but it will make you tear up. It’s just a lot of hard work that’s gone and the financial loss for next year is going to be devastating,” says Alex Cornelius, Owner of Heagan Blueberry Farm.

“You see plans they had for their children and grand children laying on the dirt and broken. You see their retirement gone with no protection. You see an opportunity that we may not can get here and salvage this,” says Chad Nimmer, Procurement Forester with Pierce Timber Company.

While the financial impact of this storm can easily be seen, the emotional damage caused by Hurricane Helene is a little harder to define.

“It’s heart breaking. You kind of go home and be inside and everything be somewhat normal and day by day, you’re out here working still and looking at it and it’s just, it’s heart breaking. It’s every day, as much time, labor, effort and heart, blood, sweat, and tears that’s been put in it, to see something like this happen, it’s just unbelievable and unbearable,” says TJ Moore with Moore Farms.

“It’s generational. I mean, especially in a perineal crop like pecans, these trees were standing in here, I was in the third grade; that was thirty-nine years ago when we planted these. So, it’s something you grew up with. So, it has a real, real strong emotional pull with it,” says Buck Paulk with Shiloh Pecan Farms.

“We need all kinds of help. We don’t need Democrats, we don’t need Republicans; we need Americans to help us and all of us come together. We have never faced it like this before. I think we’ll just have to keep on trying the best we can, but sooner or later, if it’s just year after year, we’ll just have to quit,” says Ben Strickland with Strickland Farms.

This is a legitimate concern as Helene was the second major storm in the past couple of years to make its way through the area. And with the state’s number one industry relying so heavily on Southeast Georgia to provide for a number of different sectors from produce to timber, getting these farmers back on their feet is essential for the health of not only the state, but the nation as a whole.

“When you look at agriculture in the state of Georgia, it’s one in seven jobs in the state of Georgia either indirectly or directly. Where I live, here in rural South Georgia, it’s about one in three and we’ve got to keep the American farmer in business. I mean, food security is just as a big of a part of national security as national defense is,” says Goodman.

By: Damon Jones

Americus, GA |

More than one and a half million tons. That’s how many peanuts are grown and harvested here in Georgia each and every year. So, it should come as no surprise that the annual Georgia Peanut Tour attracts guests from all over the world. This three-day tour takes them on the journey from planting to processing and everything in between. And one of their first stops was at a seed development company, where it all begins.

“Well, out here, we take breeder material from UGA breeders. We increase that. They give us about a hundred and forty pounds of seed from their breeding programs. We take that and we increase it and we increase it again until it’s available for public to buy. We’re kind of the bridge between the public breeders and the commercial buyers,” says Justin Tanner, Manager of Georgia Seed Development.

The number one goal for this kind operation is to maintain the integrity of the seed, even while being mass produced.

“Seed production is different than food production. The way we handle our seed, the way that it’s treated for purity and quality to ensure that the variety remains pure. It is our number one goal that the genetics remain just as pure as the time we get it from the breeder,” says Tanner.

Once in the ground, getting the crop all the way to harvest is quite an undertaking. Thankfully, there are companies like GreenPoint Ag that help the grower keep their peanuts healthy and strong.

“Yeah, we’re a full-service ag retailer here in Cordelle, Georgia. We sell everything a farmer needs from crop nutrients to precision ag services, agronomy services, all insecticides, herbicides and fungicides that are needed to protect the crop through the growing season. It’s important to support farmers. We give them all the things they need to protect their crop, keep the pests out of it, keep all the diseases out of their crop so they can make a good harvest and sustain a profitable operation,” says Clint Powell, Manager of GreenPoint Ag.

While here, attendees got to hear about some the latest treatment options, as well as all the dedication it takes to keep Georgia’s peanut industry running smoothly.

“I hope they enjoy seeing what we do. I love my job here and I hope everybody takes away that we’re devoted to the farmers of Georgia and supporting them and giving them everything they need. We’re very versatile. We’ll go anywhere in the state needed to support the growers. I just hope that they realize how important agriculture is for the state of Georgia, for the economy of Georgia. It’s not just farmers. It’s the entire area that we’re living in here in Georgia,” says Powell.

Even though there are many cogs in the machine when it comes to peanut production in the state, it’s important to note how they are all pulling in the same direction.

“The message that I would like to get across is that we’re all here to support the farmer. We’re all here to support the industry. There’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of hard work. We’re all committed to the farmer of the area and we all love agriculture. That’s why we’re in this industry,” says Powell.

By: Damon Jones

Ellijay, GA |

If you take a stroll through the North Georgia mountains this time of year, there are a few things you’re guaranteed to see: Beautiful mountains and apple orchards just like this one, B.J. Reese Orchards in Ellijay, who are busy harvesting deliciously ripe apples just like these. As you can see, the trees produced a fantastic crop, which according to owner, John Reese, is one of the best crops they’ve ever had.

“We had a real good spring. The apples got pollinated good. We put bees in the orchard in the spring to help pollinate the fruit, and a lot of times if it’s rainy or it’s cloudy, your apple trees don’t get pollinated good and that can hurt your crop too. So, we got a good pollination this year, and it’s one of the best crops that we’ve had. We had a little frost damage on some varieties, but overall, it’s one of the best crops we’ve had,” says John Reese, Owner of B.J. Reese Orchards.

However, growing one of the best crops they’ve ever had wasn’t an easy process, as growing apples is a year-round job, as they constantly have something to do in their orchards.

“Well in November, when you pick your last apples, you usually go through about November, first week or two in November and pick the rest of the apples that haven’t been picked. A lot of apples don’t come in until the first of November or last of October. And so, soon as we pick those, we start going in and, pruning the trees. So, uh, end of November, really, December, January, February and March, we’re pruning the trees and we push up old trees, and we get ready to plant new trees in the spring,” says Reese.

Aside from just growing and selling the apples like a typical farming operation, they also have a huge focus on agritourism; inviting the public to come pick apples, play games, and see the many other on farm attractions.

“We start our u-pick and our family fun on the farm the last weekend in August and through September and October. Depending on the crop and the weather, sometimes we’ll take the apple picking on in the first week or two in November. We have a petting farm, cow milking, and we have pony rides. We also have an apple canon where kids can shoot apples at a target. We have a wagon ride where we have some longhorns that we ride by and see the longhorn cattle. We have a scavenger hunt as well that’s like a corn maze. We also have pig races on the weekends,” says Reese.

Of course, another huge part of their operation is their store front, where people can come get freshly made, value added products that are all made from the apples they grow on their farm, like jams, jellies, and of course, fresh apple pies.

“We make our own cider and all the stuff that we grow like our jams, jellies, relishes, and chow chow is made out of our stuff that we grow and we also make our own apple pies. We use our apples in anything that we sell in here; we try to use our apples to make it,” says Reese.

By: John Holcomb