The view from my front yard on this foggy morning.
Intricacies in a Quercus stellata ~ Post Oak
I see this graceful pine tree each morning just past my backyard.
GOOD NEWS
I love trees. This is the Old Pine Tree (Loblolly pine) in our front yard ~ a sentinel through storms and drought for the last hundred years. I watered it throughout this past summer. It lived and is thriving.
BAD NEWS
Besides saying good-bye to 2011, Texans will say good-bye to upwards of 500,000,000 (that's half a BILLION) trees due to the devastaing drought.
The Texas Forest Service says between 2% and 10% of all trees died or will die from the conditions.
GOOD NEWS
The rains are returning and thankfully, many of us are hopeful that the rains will continue all winter.
We shall need to take care of the trees we have left.
I'm hopeful.
David/:-)
Still RED, but not ALL RED. Recent rains have helped.
I have read of the tree tragedy in Texas, so very sad. We can only hope nature redeems itself in your area next year. I can only imagine the trees could not take a second act on this play of events.
ReplyDeleteThat is a staggering number of trees for sure. Every time it has rained in the last few weeks, I can hear the trees singing :-) Hopefully it's not too much too late. Hopefully the summer of 2012 won't be breaking any records in the hot and dry department. My Farmer's Almanac says it will be above normal temps but still dry. We shall see. Happy New Year!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoying your blog. Just added your blog to my sidebar blog list :-) Happy New Year! Looking forward to reading more in the new year :-)
ReplyDeleteIn in a red area also... Ovr in Middle GA. I saw trees dieing as well, but didn't really connect it to the drought until seeing your post.
ReplyDeleteI was posting pics of wilted plants, but after posting scorched garden pics, what else can one blog about?
The silver lining at my garden was that I wasn't under yalls heat dome.
Yall really got punished. How hot did it get there, How many days did it get over 110?
Sad news, we all need to do our part and re-plant trees in our gardens.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year
Very sad to hear about your trees in Texas. Let's hope that the Texas Forest Service are proved wrong, and that more trees survive than they expect.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog. Your comment was most welcome, and I shall be taking your advice.
Christine
We are now in a moderate drought up here in north Texas. The rains have moistened the soil, but have not done much for lake levels. There is talk of implementing Stage 4 watering restrictions soon, which will mean no outdoor watering except for foundations and trees. It could get very interesting this summer. A true test of my prairie garden experiment.
ReplyDelete500 million trees will die due to drought!!! How many trees Texas has? Who has counted to come up with the figure of 500 million? I can't even imagine that number...
ReplyDeleteI hope these rains continue all summer long!!! There are several dead trees I can see from my house. I'm hoping the rains we are getting now will be enough to save the rest from whatever this summer holds.
ReplyDelete