ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia is the top timber-producing state in the country.

Georgia has more total timberland acreage and privately owned timberland acreage than any other state in the U.S. It is a nationwide leader that drives economic benefits for the state.

An assessment from the Georgia Forestry Commission and the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry found the $4 billion industry took a $1.2 billion hit from Hurricane Helene in September.

The damage can be seen from Valdosta to Augusta, one of the largest swaths of forestland in the state. Timber can take 30-50 years to mature. For some timber farmers, their crop was their retirement account, viewed as a 401(k). Within a matter of 24 hours, their security blanket was destroyed.

Rain saturated the ground and recorded winds of up to 110 miles an hour ripped trees from the ground, roots and all. From the air, trees look like matchsticks, blown to the ground.

Removing the roots can be a slow process and rather costly. It’s shaking up the timber industry.

Georgia Forestry Association President Tim Lowrimore estimates that 90% of the timber impacted will be lost, and 10% could be salvaged.

“Many of these rural communities that were impacted are forest-based economies and they’re forest-dependent. And that’s the greater value for us if these forestland owners are sustainable,” said Lowrimore. “Healthy forest then drives all of those environmental benefits that we were just talking about — clean air, clean water and carbon storage. And then it also provides us the goods that we look for like paper products, lumber.”

It will take time to replant, and that’s if timber producers want to take the gamble.

Analysis from Forisk Consulting shows prices for most woods have decreased over the past two years after hitting an all-time high during the pandemic.

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School Professor Tom Smith said Georgia could see long-term impacts on construction costs — everything from house projects to new construction.

“I think that the housing market is already so tight and is so expensive as it is that, you know, if they’re starting to see houses being built now, the forecast price on those houses is going to go up,” said Smith. “I think a lot of developers and general contractors are going to have to reevaluate what they forecast the price of the house when they said we’re going to do these developments. These houses are going to be $700,000 or something like that. As they start building them, and realizing the costs are so much higher, they might have to re-examine those prices, and maybe the prices will be pushed up to $800,000.”

Tommy Battle owns Battle Lumber in Wadley. His family’s roots run deep, five generations. He has doubts the state will ever recover. Battle said the only things that could help would be time and money.

“It’s going to take a long time to recover and I don’t know if it ever will. It was devastating to little small towns like we live in," said Battle.

The Associated Press reports House Speaker Jon Burns, a Newington Republican, said he expected much of a proposed relief package would look like what lawmakers agreed to after Hurricane Michael hit the state in 2018. That year, Georgia allocated $470 million. That included $200 million in income tax credits for timber and pecan farmers to replant trees and $69 million to help state and local agencies cover emergency response costs, $55 million to assist farmers suffering crop losses, and $20 million for cleanup efforts on timberland.

The issue of relief for the timber industry is bound to come up when lawmakers meet at the Capitol in January for the General Assembly session.

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