Fallen and Broken Trees: Hurricane Matthew, Impact and Responses

The title carries the analysis. A tree uprooted by wind is a total loss to be replaced, and replacement means years before a fruit tree bears again; a tree snapped but still rooted may recover with pruning and care, in a season rather than a decade. Distinguishing the two across the affected area therefore determines both the cost of restoration and how quickly household income from tree crops can return, which in southern Haiti is a large share of rural livelihood. ORE, a long-established Haitian environmental rehabilitation organization with deep experience in fruit-tree and agroforestry work in the south, presented this to the post-Matthew Table Verte alongside its companion paper on energy forests.