Tree Planting Time in The Woodlands 2011

Arbor Day is always a fun day in The Woodlands Texas.  For the past few years, the festivities are held at Rob Fleming Park in the Village of Creekside Park. Lots of people in the area go to the event to obtain free tree seedlings. It is generally promoted by The Woodlands Development Company.  This year the following trees were distributed.

1. Bald Cypress - native that loves water. Perfect for wet areas of the yard or on a body of water. These trees grow wild in or near ponds and marshy areas. They are well known to thrive in swamps. They will develop knobs from their root systems at the surface. Therefore it is not a good tree if you required grass in the shade under it. It grows slow. My 10 year old tree is about 15 feet tall growing in very good moist soil in the backyard in the sun. Trees on the pond grow slower for lack of nutrients. The tree sheds its leaves in the hot dry months of the summer and in the fall. They live for centuries. Perfect for a fishing hole on a pond. I have planted 100-200 of these trees since I moved here. 
2. Flowering Dogwood - small early Spring native bloomer that thrives in partially shaded areas. It needs some sun but tends to flourish under the shade of larger trees in the forest. The tree turns a solid white before most trees even start leafing out in the Spring, typically in February. There are many in The Woodlands and in Southeast Texas. 
3. Laurel Oak - one of our large natives oaks, known to tower about 60 feet high. It is a large (70 feet) fast growing tree with a relatively short life (50 yrs.). It is not cold resistant, freezing at about -3 degrees F; that is only 8 degrees under our known record low. 
4. Loblolly Pine -  is not the native pine here but it is used by timber companies because it is more resistant to disease than the native Long Leaf Pine and a development company or lumber farm likes it because it grows very large (100 feet) faster than other varieties. Most of The Woodlands used to be a timber company. 
5. Red Maple - large native tree (90 feet) having rich colors with of varying reds in the Fall. These are abundant among our forest trees and a favorite around homes. 
6. Southern Crabapple - a well balanced native tree when planted alone in the sun and growing in moist soil. It is a medium size fast growing shade tree that has beautiful white flowers in the Spring. 
7. Southern Wax Myrtle - small to medium sized bushy tree that is very useful to obstruct vision between homes or cut down on noise. It grows fast and is susceptible to varying boring insects which can cause weakness in the limbs. It is popular to provide a screen quickly and naturally. Some people let it grow wild. Others prefer it trimmed into shapes. 
8. Wild Common Apple - small native variety that actually produces small apples. It grows to a height of about 30 feet.   

This year for entertainment there was a clown, face painters, musicians, recorded music, slides and a variety of children activities. For the adults, there were booths of information pertaining to nature, trees, recycling and even a recent trend - Zero Trash. Volunteers from the Woodlands Garden Club were distributing the seedlings. I planted half of my seedlings that afternoon. The volunteers were very generous, so I ended up with a lot of work to get them all in the ground.  There are five more Cypress trees on the pond to replace some of those lost in the drought. Reforestation occurs every year for me. Droughts have taken a heavy toll on seedlings for the last two years. 

Arbor Day in The Woodlands and Houston 2011

On Saturday, January 22nd, 2011, The Woodlands celebrates Arbor Day with a seedling give-away of  6 species, has kids events and entertainment. The event is held in the Village of Creekside Park at the large park. For location of this major, please refer to the parks section of the Woodlands Commentary. Also each hour, a larger tree is given away in a drawing to visitors if they are present. This year, these seedings will be distributed to help make our community a better place to live - Loblolly Pine, Red Maple, Southern Crabapple, Bald Cypress, Laurel Oak, Southern Wax Myrtle, and Wild Common Apple. You can plant seedings in public areas here, as long as you do not destroy property in the process. Providing a child the opportunity to plant a tree and watch it grow is one not to be missed! It s gratifying to see a tree that you plant be a large tree in 10 years or so, so come out and get one or more seedlings, compliments of The Woodlands Development Company, The Woodlands Convention & Visitors Bureau, the South Montgomery County YMCA and The Brickman Group. There is no entrance fee and the seedlings are free.

Also on Saturday, January 22nd, Houston celebrates its Arbor Day with organized group tree plantings (25000 seedlings) as a project, sponsored by Apache Oil and Gas.  Click on link for more specifics. There is also classes taught and storytelling in an Arbor Day festival at the Houston Arboretum on January 29th from 10AM to 4PM.  Click on link for video and location. That is sponsored by WM Waste Management.

Fall colors on Trees

Here in Montgomery County and everywhere in Southeast Texas, we begin a little bit later than in the north to see fall colors. Sometimes, we see almost nothing at all except for the Chinese Tallow which is considered an invasive species and outlawed from trees nursery sale inventories. That tree is very ornamental in the fall, one trait that brought its popularity in the past century. In reality, this is not a place for a fall showing of trees, but sometimes it really surprises me what the native trees will do. Technically the Fall season has arrived, but it will be a while before the trees think it has arrived due to our southern position.

What causes the differences we see each year? It is the weather, pure and simple. Rain while the leaves become deprived of nutrients is a key component in determining the colors. The sugar content of a leaf is very important to its coloration and brilliance. If we get an early frost, the leaves are more likely to drop as ugly dried brown leaves than colored leaves, although it depends on the species and the moisture as well. Because we have had a near average rainfall this year, I am expecting a better fall show in this area. We have a fairly large population of native hardwoods interlaced among the evergreens, enough to give us a spectacular show when the conditions are right. I have seen a few trees already beginning to have fall colors, even though it is very hot. Too much heat can offset the beauty  given by the water. If we do not receive much rain and the heat stays with us, fall will again just be a blink of the eye. We need long and cool night with some light rain. More details can be found in this link: Explanation of Fall coloring

USDA Forest Service reports the fall colors for all national parks at this link. This may give insight into what is happening as the fall unfolds in the southeast. 

Bald Cypress in The Woodlands

Cypress trees are found here on ponds, creek beds and lowlands. I have planted many on the pond near our home in The Woodlands, Texas. Talk about slow growing! Talk about living to be old! They can be 800+ years old. These trees do their best in wet but fertile soil as one would expect. The soil on the banks of the nearby pond is not very nutrient rich. In fact is is heavy clay. Our 8 year tree has been pruned several times, not by us but by people who do not appreciate what it takes to grow one of these. We have one in our backyard that is doing very well and is turning into a fruit bearing tree this year after about 7 years of growth from a small sapling. It must now be about 12 feet tall.  Notice the low hanging branches. These often provide protection for deer and other creatures during the day in the forest. It also provides shade for fish in the water. The knees grow in water and land. Is is speculated that they enable the plant to get oxygen when the roots are submerged, but I have my doubts that anything of that sort is important to the tree. I suspect it has something else to do with survival in the water. 



Viewing the fruit, one is led to believe that this might be edible. Wrong! The tree is a conifer.  These little balls turn into a plated cone, like a pine tree and sends seeds into the air for sprouting new trees. Right now the fruit is very pretty on the tree. This happens to be our maturing Cypress of about 12 feet.

Another interesting characteristic of this tree is its shedding of leaves. It does this in the late fall and dry summer. That seems to protect it from severe weather. It sprouts new leaves when the rains come and turns green again. It is not hardy when it comes to fire. Several of the ones I planted were exposed to fire and did nto come back. Some did, leafing out from the roots but not the burned trunks.

Woodlands Forest Understory Wins One

The residents in The Woodlands Texas won over the development  company in some conservation of forest last night at the Sterling Ridge Village Association Meeting. Joel Deretchin brought some good news to those who were concerned about losing vegetation which shielded their homes from view. Yaupon is too often thought of as a trash tree. It provides important berries for birds and wildlife, as well as provides the undergrowth to help protect our large trees. A forest is not a tree and a tree is not a forest. To save the forest, we must also retain the understory, not just retain the large diameter trees, but the full forest of canopy and understory.

A green area in the Tarramont Park area shields homes on the golf course from traffic, giving the residents their privacy. The Woodlands Development Company decided to remove it without talking to residents, to provide a view of the golf course from the road.  After a few residents observed the activity, more came to an awareness of this project. Many residents expressed concern and became very outspoken on the issue. The Development Company stopped the project and formulated a plan that hopefully will include the residents on future clearing projects.  They will replace that which they removed and leave the green area in place.

After a certain point in development, the company needs to include residents on anything they do. This type of issue has risen many times. After people invest in properties, they have a large stake in further development and changes about them. The development company has the responsibility to include them in future decisions to change green areas. The Yaupon and other understory species are an important part of our forest. We need more sensitivity of their presence and role.  Green areas are important to residents. There are proven psychological and value advantages for having the full diversity forest in our midst.

As the people in the room clapped, I could see an element of surprise on the face of Mr Deretchin. This was much more important than the development company realized. It is also a lesson on general policy of inclusion of residents. It had the potential of blowing up and being blasted out to the news media with a red flag of resident investment risk.  

Spring has sprung even before winter is over - seeds of the elm

One of the first trees to recognize that Spring is here is the Elm. It blooms and sows its seeds before most trees even show buds for flowers. This happens right at Valentines each year.In the sunlight, the seeds can appear magnificent, and putting a light through them, one can see how they will be blown about by the wind and establish themselves far away. I have dozens of them coming up in the yard every year. A very prolific tree which migrating birds love. The leaves don't begin to appear until the seeds start to fall. Such an amazing tree!

One more summer gone, many tree years gone, Winter's Respite

There remain a number of trees to cut down after the terrible loss we had this past year with beetles in our pines. Based on what I saw, the 1000+ trees that had to be removed from public areas along roads, paths, parks and medians, most of the trees were older than 10 years. Many were 30+ years old. Let's just say conservatively, they were each ten years old on the average. That would present us with a 10000-year tree-year growth loss. I could not say what number of tree years we have in our forest, but it is a very very large number, so the percentage of loss remains fairly low. Yet intuitively, none of us can rest peacefully with the results. The primary reason we must not just write this off is the mere fact that there is a forecast for ensuing years of continuing and even worse drought. Then too, we lost a large number of trees in 2008 to the hurricane. The combined two events raise our alarm to a higher level than the norm.

How are we going to deal with rain shortages, water conservation and preserving our trees at the same time? We must put some financial resources into our future. If this year is only a taste of the future, we should be doing something about it and not just let nature take its own natural course. The one valued commodity that we have, unique from other communities, is our large trees. Without them, we are just another large subdivision on the outskirts of Houston - waterway or not, parks or not, nice homes or not. Nothing really matters except our trees.