Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Last years Texas drought

Texas lost, by some estimates, about 10% of it's trees in last years drought. I recently talked to a Biologist/Arborist who told me that due to last years heat/drought, no matter what happens, post oaks will be dieing off for the next 10 years due the stress of last year.

One "interesting" thing is that cedar trees started dieing off in the Spring. They made it through the drought and the 2 weeks of winter. They are still continuing to die. But not all of them. I can look at 2 trees in close proximity and see one dead and the other thriving. Or, see a group of trees with some trees thriving and others, in random spots, dieing. Neither rhyme nor reason or any pattern that I can see. It is even happening along my spring fed creek. Obviously, the spring quit running last year. However, the soil there should have stayed wetter longer than most areas of my place.

Most of the Magnolia trees in the D/FW metroplex died last year. That might make sense because they are not native to this area.

I saw a home that had 2 large pine trees. One is dead and the other one looks good.

Even with an automatic sprinkler running, I lost a lot of my St. Augustine grass last year. Most of my lawn has a lot of large oak trees and getting grass to grow in the shade has always been a problem without direct sunlight. That is to be expected with St. Augustine. However, the grass in the shade grew and spread in shady areas but the stuff where the sun hit it burnt up and died. That's a new and interesting development. It appears that broad leaf weeds in the sunny areas weren't affected at all.

We got some pretty good Spring rains but I guess the damage was already done.

Guy I work at the fire station with does landscaping/tree trimming part time. He's already removed more trees this year than all of last year. He can't even keep up with his lawns.

So far, we've lost 8 trees at the farm, and time will tell about the rest. I lost some cedars, so they're ready for lake structure, but losing the oaks really hurts. I'm always amazed at how oaks can live for a hundred years, but dirt work or drought can kill them years after the event.

Dave, if you watched P Delkus last night, he said we're 4" ahead for the year, but 3" behind for May, when we usually get our big Spring rains. Like you, I'm already worried about what's ahead of us this year.

As a side note, when we went to the BASS Master Classic in Shreveport, I was unable to even count the dead Pines on I20. Thousands were literately fried to a crisp. Drought or beetles, it's going to dramatically change the landscape of N TX.

Dave:

The grass under the trees did better because of the shade - less evaporation. The weeds do better than the grass because of a deeper/larger root system.

I've noticed the same thing around here, in areas where numbers of trees are stressed. Some shrug off the stress better than others and live while it will kill others. I've been asked why, and I cannot come up with an answer.

while trees are larger what you cannot see is the actual depth of the roots. Some dig deeper while other spreadt out shallow and wide...
I would think the ones that get the most water with the least effort will prosper...