Brown-eyed Susan Thrive in Hurricane Michael Scar

When catastrophic Hurricane Michael finished crossing the Florida panhandle more than 2.8 million acres of timber were left destroyed or severely damaged by the storms 155 mph winds.  In Bay, Calhoun and Gulf counties—where Michael made landfall—347,000 acres suffered >95% damaged.

So what's become of the forests of northwest Florida a year later?  They are still bent or broken (or cleared bare) but in their place are vast stands of wildflowers.  

It will take a generation for the forests to recover their tree canopy.

Native Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) is thriving in the Hurricane Michael Scar near Marianna in these images made near Marianna Blue Spring.  In this area the forests were >75% destroyed by Michael.

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Hurricane Michael Damage Path

The Brown-eyed Susan are often 6-8 feet tall (+2 m) and thick requiring some serious effort to hike through.  I'm finding it easier to hike around them.  The plants appear to prefer wetter areas but are thriving anywhere the tree canopy has been destroyed.

The path of destruction was originally left brown with millions of dead trees and other debris as seen here in satellite images before and after the storm.  Many of the dead trees are still where they fell but around them wildflowers thrive.

Here at the corner of Poplar Springs Road and Blue Springs Road in Marianna the wildflowers overtake signs (and everything else).  All that remain of the forests here, 60 miles inland, are sparse broken and bent trees.