When the storm ceased on the final day an eerie calm set in, which belied the tangled mess of fallen trees and downed power lines littering the ice-covered landscape.

For six days last year, Ice Storm '98 - dubbed the greatest natural disaster in North American history - paralysed eastern Ontario. A moist warm air mass from the Gulf of Mexico met an arctic cold front over the St. Lawrence and Ottawa valleys, and then spread east through much of Quebec, upstate New York, parts of New England and into the Maritimes. In Ontario, freezing rain fell in a triangular area from Ottawa south-west to Trenton, and east all along the provincial border to Quebec.

A year later, the mark of the storm is still evident. Many small businesses are still feeling the economic crunch of the storm's destruction, while governments will be documenting the damage for years to come. In many places, the land has been changed forever.

"It's too early to tell what the full impact will be, but it is clear that the storm was the largest disaster since the last ice age," says R.A. Lautenschlager, a forest ecologist for the Ministry of Natural Resources' (MNR) Ontario Forest Research Institute. "This storm deposited twice as much ice as any documented storm before it - in some areas the ice was 11 centimetres thick."

Nowhere is the imprint of the storm more evident than in the forests. Lautenschlager is helping lead a $1.5 million study including scientists from MNR, the Canadian Forest Service, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Carleton and Guelph Universities and the University of Toronto. The study is looking at the long-term biological and economic consequences of the ice storm. Scientists are assessing the health of different species on plots of trees to find out if damaged trees can be saved, and if so, what treatments are available to help them recover.

Preliminary results of the study will not be available for at least another year but, generally, Lautenschlager says that both hardwood and softwood species suffered from the storm. Hardwoods like silver and red maple, aspen and birch suffered extensive damage, as did softwoods like scotch, jack and red pine. Species such as balsam, fir, spruce and hemlock faired much better.

In economic terms, the maple syrup industry appears to be hardest hit. Although sugar maples suffered slightly less than many other species, the damage effect was greater due to the species' economic value. The outlook for the industry may be somewhat better than suggested by early reports, which estimated damage ranging from 50 per cent to the destruction of entire woodlots. However, for maple sugar producers, withstanding even 20 to 30 per cent damage to their trees and related income is still horrific, Lautenschlager says. "A significant portion of the crowns, which are the food factory of the tree, have been damaged," says Gary Neilson, an MNR stewardship co-ordinator in Leeds County. "Therefore, we expect a reduction in syrup production this spring (1999)."

The eastern Ontario lumber industry also suffered economic consequences from the storm. Strangely, the damage done to trees may have created a glut in the lumber market caused by what Lautenschlager calls a "knee-jerk reaction." He says that some woodlot owners, fearing the death of trees from disease or insect infestation caused by the storm, sent damaged trees to the mill. The result was a lower economic return on their trees, which may have eventually recovered.

Until the results of the multi-partner study are in, scientists hesitate to say how this experience will shape the future management of forests in eastern Ontario.

"It's too early for us to be able to provide long-term advice," Neilson says.

In the aftermath of Ice Storm '98, most of the clean-up is done and eastern Ontario is on its way to recovery. When summer arrived last year, the storm-scarred trees were covered by leaves and for a time people put the devastation behind them. This winter, those battered trees are again displaying their wounds for all to see. But for the most part, just like the people of eastern Ontario, many of the trees are slowly recovering.

"The trees were damaged, but the forest lives on," Neilson says. "In the big picture, this storm is just another disturbance to our northern forest."