Friday, July 15, 2011

Trees in trouble

That there's a drought all across the southern tier of the US (<~~click here to see the current map) from Arizona to Florida is not a big secret. This part of Texas has received about 23" less in rainfall than normal in this "water year" (October, 2010, to now). And it's showing in the numbers of dead -- not just dying, but dead -- trees all over the area.

It's all very heart-breaking.



1 comment:

Callie said...

Poor trees.

On Wednesday I did another 21 miler on the trail along Buffalo Bayou in west Houston. There is a huge swath of green between the trail and the backyards of some pretty ritzy houses. That green has quite a few planted trees and shrubs. I witnessed several Harris County water trucks dump gallons of water at the base of several of the trees that day. They weren't watering all of them.

On that same stretch on a previous ride, I saw crepe myrtles drooping. I've never seen crepes suffer from lack of rain.

Also, the tree line just along the bayou is COVERED in wild muscadine grape vines. I wonder if the lack of rain has caused them to flourish. The paved trail in some places was covered in crushed grapes. :)