Mark Twain once said, “whiskeys’ for drinking, waters’ for fighting” here in the ATX Metro area it may come to that… we have added around 30% more people in the last 10 years and 0% new water reserviors. That’s probably not a good thing. Water becomes a more precious resource every day, and summers like this one, do not help. Let’s just hope we can be more civil about it if the real stress comes.
What can we do as a community? Cities have already started to cut usage in the easy places, like making Bermuda grass a standard, and doing away with St Augustine. Soon it may be the lawn altogether. Trees however are safe from the restrictions, (we need them for our survival).
Water is essential to a trees uptake of nutrients and building of it’s defense against harmful pathogens. Without it, the tree becomes vulnerable and the decline begins. Chainsaws excluded, trees rarely die of one thing, it’s a multitude of issues that kill them. Lack of water magnifies all of them. Exponentially.
What can you do for your trees? Put a hose on them, and don’t think for a minute that the irrigation is doing anything. The other is shut their growth down. (see the post “Shut Down Your Trees”).
We can cheat a bit, the native Oaks and Elm are pretty resilient here. So if you havent watered the Trees consider yourself lucky, just don’t push that luck. Your tree may pay the price.