It's the Trees....
The lasting legacy of the 2011 Texas Drought will be the huge numbers of dead trees.
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| Marked for Removal |
In Houston, and in the eastern portion of the state, we have a (very) large number of Pine Trees. When drought strikes, the trees are put into stress. When they are in our yards, or other locations where we can reach them with water hoses, frequently we can prevent the stress from becoming severe.
But in may areas, watering the trees is just not possible or practical. In those places, many (many) Pines are stressed enough that they fall victim to Pine Bark Beatles. These burrowing insects eat into the trees, finally circling the tree, invisibly, under the bark, until the tree dies.
The dead pines die with their needles still in place, which turn a rust red and hang on for quite a while before falling. In adition to Pines, several broadleaf species will succumb to stress, and die in a similar way, dead, red leaves, clinging, indicating that the tree has no hope.
When flying, I've estimated that in some places, 20% to 30% of the trees are dead. In a small park near our home however, a place where watering isn't practical, I believe 50% of the trees have died (the above photos are all from that one small park).
Estimated number of dead trees on City Property inside the City of Houston = 12,500
City Property is about 1/4 of the land inside the city, so...........................x 4 = 50,000
The City is only about 1/3 of the area of Harris County, so......................x 3 = 150,000
Around 60 of Texas's 254 counties have similar trees, so......................x 60 = 9,000,000
That's a LOT of dead trees.
- Mark W. Laughlin
12-November-2011
3rd Update:
Really cool photo !!
Fire (very) near Bastrop, Texas.
This was circulating via e-mail on Thursday (thank you DS!). I have attempted to find the photographer, but no luck yet. If I do, I will give full photo credit here on the blog.
It was noted as having been taken that morning, which doesn't work if you look carefully at the photo (with the morning sun at your back, the view would be toward the west, with the flag indicating a breeze out of the South, which has not been so in the area, and if you do "street-level view" on Google Maps, the business signs do not line up with properties in the area). So, I finally figured out that it's actually an afternoon photo, looking East, which makes all the signs, shadows and breeze line up. (a minor point, morning or afternoon, but the prominent Home Depot sign that didn't line up with the local businesses made me think it was a fake)
Anyway, it's a really cool, very nicely lit photo, very nice focus, color and contrast. My compliments to the photographer, I hope we can make contact.
Still ain't rain'n, here in Houston or in Bastrop. There is another storm in the Gulf, but it isn't predicted to be of any help.
(My cousin Connie says that the photographer's name is Charles Kohlmyer. If so, great photo !)
- Mark
2nd Update:
Labor Day - We attended a party for my niece near Waller, Texas. As we left, we noticed this large fire burning about 12 miles North of Waller, moving South in the high, very dry winds. As we got home, I noticed on the news that the path of the fire would come perilously close to my good friend's house, near Magnolia, Texas. I called him and found that he had just received a call, ordering the family to leave their home and evacuate the area while there was still time. We're crossing our fingers and hoping that their house is undamaged.
Quite ironically, the Tropical Storm that missed us to the East had the effect (just the opposite of the usual drenching rains they drop) of increasing our Fire Danger, by whipping up winds and pulling very dry air off the Central Great Plains.
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| Grimes County Fire / 05-Sept-2011 |
UPDATE:
Saturday - Well, we had hopes this week, for drought relief in the form of a Tropical Storm. Unfortunately, it hit to the East of us, in Louisiana, leaving us on the "Dry Side" of the storm. It was tantalizingly close...
(about 6pm, Saturday, 3-Sept) The storm is circular, rotating counter-clockwise around the "clear spot" you can see just on the center of the right side of the picture (above the "Weather Channel" logo). It was a center that was moving VERY slowly to the North, at about 3 miles per hour. This very slow travel had caused the weather folks to predict very heavy rains in some areas, since parts of the storm would be above those areas, dropping heavy rains, for many hours. We were hoping, that part of the storm would spread far enough West to hit us in Houston, but...
(about 10pm, Sat, 3-Sept) As the storm continued to spin, the light green on the radar, indicating light rain, SLOWLY crept toward us...but as it did, the rain in the part to the North and East of us, the part heading toward us, faded and dispersed. We had literally 2 or 3 light drops of rain, and in the morning, the ground was not even damp.
I intended to show this picture with the original post. It's historically what's supposed to happen, rainfall-wise, here in Texas. Houston is located on the West side of Galveston Bay, the large bay you can see near the Southeast corner of the state, between the numerals 50 and 55. That means we should get between 50 and 55 inches of rainfall annually in Houston. So far this year, we are not even up to the level expected in the little white tip of far Western Texas (where El Paso is).
Oh well, it's still "Hurricane Season" for about 3 more months. Maybe we can still get a storm in here that rains, without blowing us away.
-ML
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I found a little data to support my complaining about the lack of rain here in Texas. Harris County, the county Houston is in, keeps about 100 rain gages all over the county to let them know (in normal years) where flooding will occur in heavy rains.
Take a look, due west of the center of town, about halfway between the town center and the heavy black County Line. You’ll see a number “3.32“, which is the location of our house. That means 3.32 inches of rain (84mm)…in the last 180 days !! Normal annual rainfall in Houston is about 54 inches (almost 1.4m), so 6 month’s rainfall should be 27 inches ( about 68 cm)….we got 3.32 in / 8.4 cm !!! About 12% of normal.
This map shows that 1 year ago, 89% of the state was in the “normal” range, with about 11% in slightly dry conditions. Now, 99.49% of the state is in at least “Moderate” drought, with almost 95% being in “Extreme to Exceptional” drought.
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| http://www.sustainabilityninja.com/eco-news/41-of-u-s-in-major-drought-14251/ |
Wildlife suffers as well. As we would expect, deer, birds and other terrestrial wildlife are having a tough time. Of course, fish living in rapidly dwindling lakes and rivers are endangered too. Surprisingly, even oysters are at risk. Yes, oysters mainly grow in Texas’ brackish water coastal estuaries. The lack of rainfall means a lack of fresh water flowing into these estuaries, and so the water is far warmer and saltier than normal, devastating the oyster crop. I didn’t hear anything about shrimp, but they spawn in the same areas, and so they may have issues too.
So, many of us down here had a little drool on our chins as we watched Hurricane Irene crash its way up the US East Coast. Some places up there were washing away with over 10 inches of rain. One place got 17 inches. I told Bren that if we got twice that much…we’d be up to normal for the year. Bring it on !! We’ll take it.
