Drought decimating Texas’ urban forests

1/10 of trees already gone

Matt Dietrichson, Feb 16, 12.

The Texas Forest Service estimates up to 5.6 million trees have died due to dry conditions thus far, according to Texas Climate News:

About 5.6 million trees in cities and towns across Texas were killed by last year’s record-setting drought, the Texas Forest Service has estimated after studying before-and-after satellite imagery.

This “dramatic” toll on the state’s urban forest is “a slow-moving disaster, not like a hurricane or ice storm,” lead researcher Pete Smith of the Forest Service told Texas Climate News.

In an announcement of the findings of the study, which was conducted last month, Smith said the estimated number of trees claimed by the drought is only preliminary, because others continue to fall prey to its effects.

“This means we may be significantly undercounting the number of trees that ultimately will succumb to the drought. That number may not be known until the end of 2012, if ever.”

Forest Service researchers believe the drought-killed trees may already account for up to a tenth of those that were growing in Texas cities and towns.

That is consistent with the agency’s estimate last month in a separate study, using a different methodology, that concluded up to half a billion trees outside urban areas had died due to drought impacts – about 10 percent of the forest trees in Texas.

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