Drought Kills 300 Million Trees in Just Texas more in Midwest

He was not "off". He was simply trying to show them that the processing goes several steps past "necessary" in order to insure the safety of the water.

I was curious as to how the Dustbowl ended in the 1930's. I figured that if we could implement the same actions today, we could prevent another from occurring.

Sadly enough, what ended the Dustbowl was rain. Weather patterns returned to normal.

It's humbling to be shown time and time again how powerless we are when it comes to something as simple as "weather."

Central Texas here. Yes, the drought killed nearly half of all the trees in my area. We also had raging forest fires that took out National Forest areas.

I've already lost half of my trees which I planted from acorns and were up to the 60 foot tall range. The ash died first, not a biggie though because though were planted for temperature control as they are fast growers and I intended to cull them anyway. The remaining trees are all still stressed and we no longer have drought conditions here. It will be another year or two before I know if these other trees make it or not. A couple more will die, I'm sure.

I planted a variety of oaks (eleven different kinds) with the express intention of letting them 'condition' to the alternating extremes we have here. My favourite and most perfect oak was the first to go. The live oaks made it! Stressed live oaks; but, they were the hardiest.

No, we didn't water the trees. It was a drought. One town not far away lost it's sole water tower. We were conserving extremely.

Currently, we don't have to conserve so extremely and the current water bill for my spouse and me is 2,000 gallons for one month. It was 2/3rds less during the drought and we WERE putting out water for wildlife with what little water we did use.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


With weather being more "extreme" as of late I fear you Texans are in a lot of trouble. I don't know if you know about the Owens Valley in California but at one time it was quite lush. Times are changing and with torrential rains a good portion of the needed water runs off into the Gulf of Mexico. I wish you folks luck out there.

Originally posted by Mamatus
reply to post by Trexter Ziam

 

With weather being more "extreme" as of late I fear you Texans are in a lot of trouble. I don't know if you know about the Owens Valley in California but at one time it was quite lush. Times are changing and with torrential rains a good portion of the needed water runs off into the Gulf of Mexico. I wish you folks luck out there.

From what is sounds like, you know alittle bit about our future water problem. Whats your time frame for when it becomes a real problem and the SHTF?

reply to post by camaro68ss


Even top level scientists have no current time frame. The severity and speed of the changes are simply new to them and they have IMHO nothing more than guesses. There is a term being tossed around by the water folks. "The New Normal". With anything new there is not enough relative history to draw solid science based conclusions on. Those that try have gotten burned by the deniers lol.

My overall instinct is that the conditions you folks (and many others) are facing will come and go. There will still be wet years but the overall trend is not attractive. I wish I had a time frame, I would be rich (;

Mamatus No, I don't know about Owens Valley California. I did see Southern California over forty years ago and remember coming through a desert, going over a hilltop-like rise and then WHOA! In the valley below me were orchards of lemons, limes and oranges everywhere.

My land was originally native grassland. I planted it with trees, grapes and berries. It went from semi-arid before the drought to arid and the landscape changed. No grass. Lots and lots of sand rose to the top of this sandy loam and made the land white and ghost-like. Thank you for the lucky weather wish.

Camaro68ss I have no crystal ball here either. I only know our Texas weather has gone through extremes in the past. I DO know about and practice Xeriscaping. I also knew before the drought that there were water table shortage problems in the local aquifer and it's a certain doomsday scenario for the aquifier if local people don't stop building and watering golf courses, learn Xeriscaping, find alternative water sources, and quit increasing the population density in this area.

Originally posted by SaneThinking
Watched this documentary on CBC newsworld here in Canada called Last call at the Oasis last night and was a shocker not sure if it is the same one as the poster mentioned above about Vegas and four yrs of water left but was eye opening and informative for sure. Video may only be available in Canada but im sure people know enough about IP's to bypass that and watch it anyhow.

It's pretty long grab a bevy and sit for a bit if your gonna watch it

It seems we as a species are moving quickly toward hard times and no one seem all that concerned until the problem is upon them, sad really...

SaneThinking

edit on 28-1-2013 by SaneThinking because: just an add

Yup, that's the one. Last night CBC. We're all dooooomed so if it's yellow it's mellow, brown, flush it down.

reply to post by Mamatus


You actually understood that to notice word twisting? meh, I must be tired.

reply to post by FlySolo


LMAO! That is was not understandable was pretty clear. Anytime you start off countering an argument with "So in other words" you invalidate your response. That's what he did, just not so clearly lol

Originally posted by tw0330
I live by Purdue University, and they were making a big deal about this over the summer.

here is the Link from July.

Some signs your tree is stressed and in need of water include any curling or browning of leaves, no growing of new leaves, and splitting of the bark at the base of the trunk. Most trees need about 10 gallons of water per week for every inch and a half in diameter.

edit on 28-1-2013 by tw0330 because: (no reason given)

Which Purdue? Westville or Lafayette? I'm smack dab in the middle of both.
I pointed out to my ol' man yesterday, Alot of aborvites(sp) are dead. They should stay green even during the winter, but, alot have turned brown. Some pine trees are also doing the same thing. It can't be a fungus, cuz all the trees should have it.

Droughts have been killing the trees all through the midwest, up through Canada. It's not some small local event. but the media-ocre seems to feel the need to give us stories on which useless film star took her clothes off this week rather than inform us of the plight of local american families.
But don't worry, when the food stops flowing, they'll notice.

Originally posted by IsawWHATtheyDID
is any one 100% certain that its the drought thats killing trees ? what about all of the untold fracking chemicals polluting the available ground water that the trees also use?

Background, here:

* I live in Texas (Dallas)
* my family's all over Texas (lots of places)
* the state is in a severe drought
* the drought has dried up some lakes to the point where ghost towns (inundated when they built the lakes) are starting to reemerge from the water.
* At Audubon this year, 11 of 13 ponds dried up completely, and if we hadn't had all the rain that came this month, we would have lost a 12th pond by now
* we expect the drought will last at least another 3 years. Even with all the rain, the lakes in Dallas are still 1 to 2 feet below normal levels.

Trees in the city aren't dying off so much because they get watered. But in the countryside, yes, things don't look good. Add to that the huge wildfires of last year, and you can begin to get some idea of how bad it is. Now add in the warmer than usual weather, and we're seeing pest insects from the tropics moving in to attack plants and animals and trees (going north at a rate of about 50 miles per hour... and yes, I'm part of an eco-monitorning team, so I'm probably more aware of this than most.)

Texas is no longer a state of small communities and farms -- it's now a state with some huge metropolitan areas and a big need for water. We're trying new strategies (like the John Bunker Sands Wetlands), but yes, trees are still dying and yes, the cities still have water rationing (can't water your lawn on certain days).

It's likely to get worse before it gets better. There's a bunch of us working to help change things.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam

I'm not surprised that your live oaks made it. They're probably the most drought tolerant.

I think you can expect to see the place overrun with mesquite soon, if we don't watch out.

Originally posted by Byrd
reply to post by Trexter Ziam

 

I'm not surprised that your live oaks made it. They're probably the most drought tolerant.

I think you can expect to see the place overrun with mesquite soon, if we don't watch out.

Yes, Live Oaks are drought tolerant and have added benefits. They weatherize the structures in the Winter (retain their leaves throughout Winter), drop their leaves in the Spring to accomodate sunshine to reach new undergrowth or native shade tolerant grasses, and then grow new leaves in time to weatherize structures for Summer. I consider Live Oaks the most "courteous" tree I know of.

The only other type of oak that survived is the native scrub oak. It's scraggley and ugly; but, it does provide shelter for snakes, birds, anoles, frogs and other reptiles and amphibians; as well as forage for deer.

Actually, the one and only native mesquite I had and cherished for good ole Texas BBQ, died.

Native cedars loved the drought though and multiplied. In a hundred years, there should be enough for a moth-proof cabin.

There have been many new insects as well. Entomologists get my reports and agree that the stressed trees are attracting the insects. I wish I had a decent camera - 2 of the insects were HUGE and EXOTIC-looking.

reply to post by winterkill


i spoke heavily last year of the potential we have for a new dust bowl opening up in the Midwest and most people just snickered and said, that will never happen. lol i never say never these day's.

expect food prices this year to go very high and the value of the dollar going very low which could make for a perfect storm effect and also if inflation rears it's ugly head at the same time we could be in for a real crappy time for quite a while. don't be fooled by the 2012 crap that passed, just make sure you keep a couple months of food on hand in case it get's too expensive to buy.

Originally posted by IsawWHATtheyDID
reply to post by Mamatus

 

i dont know if there is water , and i dont know if lack of water is what is killing the trees. just asking if any one knew for sure that they were being killed by drought or possibly being poisoned. so no i did not answer my own question.

drought will absolutely kill trees during and up to several years after it is over, of which this drought in the Midwest is not over. it weakens the ones that do not die the year of the drought making them susceptible to a plethora of detrimental organisms.

I jumped on here while having coffee before going out to cut, haul down and burn the fallen oak trees that are on the roofs of three of my buildings... I'm located in Anderson County Texas on 20+ acres that were beautiful but now are beginning to look like hell... I was a little kid in Dallas during the 6 year drought of the early to mid 1950s and remember cracks in the dried out black soil large enough for small children, dogs and cats to break their legs in... The water in most area towns was unfit for human consumption and the grass in most neighborhoods turned brown... I never saw trees dying off at the rate that they are or the absence of wildlife other than squirrel and wood rats like now... Three years ago a fire that started in the middle of a field 3 miles from my place caused the sheriff's department evacuate all of the homes in it's path... If it hadn't been for the forest service and those of us with plows and (or) front end loaders on our tractors a lot of people would have lost every thing.... The conditions for that happening again are far worse for that to occur now than it was then.

Man, I just got back to this thread after a couple of days.
My heart goes out to these regions.
I cannot even imagine what impact this is having on the wildlife in these areas, not just the people.
I hope this is just a cycle and nearing it's end.
Let's hope it doesn't just swing in the other direction with lots of rain.
Without the trees and grasses, the flash floods would be horribly destructive.

I have a hundreds of water statistics that would scare the heck out of most folks

Unfortunately people don't care about facts, they just care about faith. We are headed for tons of misery and no one will even talk about what we need to do about it (stop population growth) because they've been brainwashed to worship growth and development.

I mean look at the big news lately it's immigration reform- like we need any more people in this country.