23 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

I mentioned in one the threads here (can't remember which one) that I've lost several
large, old trees in my yard.
Turns out, they're Siberian Elms, and died from (more or less) natural old age; although
the drought quickened their demise.
Two of those massive beauties are dead. Breaks my heart.
The biggest one is over 7' in circumference.

And if turns out too, that I am not the only one.
But I digress.

Hundreds of trees in Amarillo have died in the last few years from drought, but
especially Thompson Park. (It's 610 acres, Central Park in New York is 843. Fun fact. )
Anyway..........

AMARILLO, TX -- "You hear it all the time, especially around here -- how trees are one of
our most precious resources.
But hundreds of trees in Thompson park are now being cut down -- why?

Most of the trees in that park were planted eighty to ninety years ago....
and they're Siberian elms, which usually only live to be around a hundred years old.


But last year's drought hastened their demise and killed a large percentage of them.

So now, all the dead ones are being culled according to the city's parks & recreation director,
Larry Offerdahl..
"And they're Siberian Elms and so we're going to replant the new trees with a variety of drought resistance varieties, that's going to help us withstand future drought."

On April 21, ProNews 7, along with Xcel Energy and Amarillo National Bank,
are partnering up with the city and its green day celebration.
We'll all plant hundreds of new trees in that park!"
http://www.connectam...84#.T4YWJVF8Bqw

It's so rare these days, that we get to read positive news regarding our environment,
I just wanted to share.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Now this is dedication! This one man planted a forest.

"One Indian man has made a stand; by single-handedly planting and cultivating a 1,360 acre forest that is home
to a complex, thriving ecosystem.
Jadav “Molai” Payeng started his project 30 years ago when he was still a teenager.
He began work to create a new forest.
Planting the seeds by hand, watering the plants in the morning and evening, and pruning them when required,
he cultivated a huge natural reserve.

Over the years, the reserve has seen a huge variety of flora and fauna blossom on the sandbar.
“After 12 years, we've seen vultures. Migratory birds, too, have started flocking here."
http://inhabitat.com...60-acre-forest/

Who says one person can't make a difference?

[mariaandrea]

Well, nice to see some good news and something good come out of something sad. So sorry about your trees.   Are you planting new ones too, like the park? I have a feeling drought tolerant trees and plants of all kinds are going to become ever more popular in more parts of the country as time goes on. I'm glad people are starting to plant them now. And yay for more trees! Always a good thing.

[dconklin]

Sorry to hear about your trees I am glad to hear that they are planting more trees that are more drought resistant! This should be a nice project for the community to do too.  Always nice to hear something like this, it makes up for the bad news of the poor trees that had to go early.

[angeldrb]

Wow, hats off to that dear Indian man! I hope there are more people like him in this world. I planted five trees in our backyard last year. It's still a long way to make a forest, but it's a start. Haha!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

mariaandrea, on 12 April 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

So sorry about your trees.   Are you planting new ones too, like the park?

Thanks. It's hard to lose them.
I will replant, but for now I have to deal with that huge dead one.
I'm going to the replanting at the park, so I'll get some idea's of what to plant in my yard for drought tolerance.
(I'll shop til I drop at Arbor Day Foundation.)

Several years ago, I gathered up long seed pods (don't know the tree name yet) and planted them. Only one
took, but two years ago, two babies started on their own, half way across the yard.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Oops, I missed this story but I'll share it now.   More replanting.

"Sierra Club Spearheads Largest-Ever Reforestation of Abandoned Mine Lands in Kentucky.
Over two March weekends in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, hundreds of volunteers including a large Sierra Club
contingent launched the largest reforestation project on abandoned mine lands in the state's history.

Nearly 350,000 trees—all native hardwood species—will be planted over the next three years on 250 acres

that had been strip-mined in the

Fishtrap Lake

watershed in Pike County.

The project is being funded by a settlement from a Sierra Club lawsuit against an illegal mountaintop

removal operation.

  
Sierra Club

and about 200 volunteers from around the state in planting more than 7,000 seedlings on March 17,

and more than 300 people—including 100 Boy Scouts—turned out the following weekend.

The Club is now partnering with the

Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative

(ARRI), the

American Chestnut Foundation

, and the

Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources

on the 250-acre reforestation.

Species diversity will be established by planting northern red oak, black oak, white oak, chestnut oak, yellow poplar,

sugar maple, red maple, redbud, dogwood, black cherry, black walnut, black locust, big tooth aspen,

and hawthorn, in addition to the American chestnut."

http://sierraclub.ty...-kentucky-.html


Are any members here Sierra Club members? Please post any replantings you read about.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Worth the time.
http://www.nytimes.c...dit_th_20120412

[MyDigitalpoint]

It's sad see nature dying, but I feel so sad when it comes to trees over any other vegetation on earth.

I believe this article that you are sharing explains better than I why when trees die, the world is losing more than a plant.

And you see, the latest tornadoes in Texas took so many trees down :(

[Shortpoet-GTD]

MyDigitalpoint, on 14 April 2012 - 02:19 PM, said:

It's sad see nature dying, but I feel so sad when it comes to trees over any other vegetation on earth.

I believe this article that you are sharing explains better than I why when trees die, the world is losing more than a plant.

And you see, the latest tornadoes in Texas took so many trees down :(

Tornadoes do a lot of damage, but Texas lost millions of trees due to the drought. Other states in the south
(like Florida) are just as bad.

(Oranges/reds/yellows-extreme to moderate drought areas- a large part of the map.)
1st map 2011 annual drought map-2nd map March 2012
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa..._Oct-2-2011.png

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa...in201203_pg.gif

edit-link added

[steph84]

One of my plum trees had an infection and died and I just felt terrible. I am so sorry for your trees. I know what it feels like. I basically live in a desert, but have you tried harvesting water? I know some friends who use rain barrels and other ways to harvest water and use for their gardens.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

steph84, on 14 April 2012 - 07:52 PM, said:

One of my plum trees had an infection and died and I just felt terrible. I am so sorry for your trees. I know what it feels like. I basically live in a desert, but have you tried harvesting water? I know some friends who use rain barrels and other ways to harvest water and use for their gardens.

This year, some. We've gotten a bit more rain.
But last year? Not a drop. We didn't have much rain, not even last spring.

I watered some, but I felt too guilty with our lake levels at historic lows, even though the city didn't put in
restrictions.- idiots.
And with the old ones, it wouldn't have helped much anyway. They were at the end of their time.   100 years or so.

[E3 wise]

From Jeff Moore of E3 Wise

I hope the replanting goes well in Thompson Park.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area in Amarillo Texas, Thompson Park is a 610 arced are named after a general in the American Army during WW1, who later became major of Amarillo.  It is the largest park and has a small lake, amusement park and zoo.  Growing up outside Amarillo on ranch land with very few trees it was the place my grandmother took me, my sister and cousins to have fun.

Many Saturdays we would drive into town to feed the ducks and have a picnic lunch by the lake. A day at the park being the benefit of a weeks full of chores.  Later we would go to the zoo; I saw my first elephants there and many other exotic species.  When I was really young we would go over to kiddy land, the precursor to Wonderland Park the amusement park that would come later.

One of my very first vividly memories are my grandfather holding me on top of a horse on the carrousel there, I was probably five.   Over the years it was our oasis of green in an arid land.  Not the only park but by far the biggest, I loved to go there and read under the tall Elms and listen to all the birds.

It was a fun place away from the cares of school, chores and ranch life.

The drought killed several hundred trees there and in many other parks in Amarillo in 2011.

Not a day goes by that I don’t worry about Amarillo and its water resources from Lake Meredith sitting at 30 feet and dropping, the new wells being in Roberts County may help some but water is a huge issue.

Lois and I presented a proposal to integrate cistern systems into Amarillo water management almost 12 years ago, back then the drought was beginning and we felt they would really be needed in the future, sometimes I really hate being right. Maybe we should update it and resubmit it, I don't know if they are even interested.

Anyway if you can, post a story about the replanting yesterday.  Living here in Florida I miss getting news from home. I wish I could have been there to help, a day of tree replanting in my old home town would have been cool.

Jeff from E3Wise

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Your wife is a peach, so what do I call you except sweetie?
Thanks for that post.

I'll be there, shovel at the ready this coming Saturday.
(Oh, and last report I heard was the lake level was at 23 feet. But with recent rains, it may have come up a bit.)

[E3 wise]

Everyone calls me Jeff, Lois and I both contribute to the E3Wise for applications other than alt energy shift, If i am contributing I simply include from or by jeff.

I have to agree that Lois is one in 7 billion, we are one of the few couples I know that work together every day and have no issues.  She is president of the company because she has a little more school than I do.  I am the director of integration for EPWG and E3Wise.
Lois specialties are water issues, solar energy, energy storage, My areas of responsibility are wind energy, hydrogen energy systems and geothermal applications.

I wanted to know if you are aware of anyway someone can donate to the tree funding for Thompson and other parks in Amarillo, if there is a web site you know of I would love to help.  Thanks for your help planting trees.  I wish more people in Amarillo followed your great example.

[dconklin]

Shortpoet-GTD, on 15 April 2012 - 03:26 AM, said:

This year, some. We've gotten a bit more rain.
But last year? Not a drop. We didn't have much rain, not even last spring.

I watered some, but I felt too guilty with our lake levels at historic lows, even though the city didn't put in
restrictions.- idiots.
And with the old ones, it wouldn't have helped much anyway. They were at the end of their time.   100 years or so.

As bad as a drought is, at least the old trees made it to about the time they would have lived.  Shame they went a little early due to lack of water tho.  I am surprised they didn't put restrictions on water, weren't they fighting fires last summer? Or is my memory serving me wrong? (stranger things have happened then my memory going)

[kat74]

Me and my family plant way over a thousand trees every rainy season. We have decided to invest in trees where by we plant then each year, when they mature, we will harvest them for cash on a yearly basis then plant more. That way, our land will never be bare of trees and the environment will for ever be conserved.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

E3 wise, on 15 April 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

I wanted to know if you are aware of anyway someone can donate to the tree funding for Thompson and other parks in Amarillo, if there is a web site you know of I would love to help.  Thanks for your help planting trees.  I wish more people in Amarillo followed your great example.

Could be one of the Ware's covering the cost. Xcel Energy may have bought the trees in mass-donation-tax
deduction? or maybe Amarillo National Bank. I can't find any additional information from either site.
You'd think they'd have more info, considering the good green publicity they all would get.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

If you've even seen Homer droll over his beer,
that's how I think about chocolate. And it could be a "lifesaver" for decimated lands.


“If a farmer has about 5 hectares and he wants to raise cattle, if he wants to have a good control and management of his herd,
he will have 5, maximum 8, head of cattle,” he says. “On the same piece of land, the farmer could have more than 5,000 cacao trees, each producing a kilo of cacao per year.”
According to Ilson, the cattle could bring in about $2,500 per year while the cacao would bring in about $10,000 per year. “
And with cacao, the farmer also gets other products from the shade trees, like açai and other fruits, Brazil nuts, rubber, and wood.”
“I visited a farmer this past week who hasn’t deforested his land since about 2004,” says Ilson.
“He stopped raising cows and now his property is practically 90% restored and all the time he is planting various native tree species.”

Cacao Restores Degraded Pasture Land
This type of forest restoration can help transition damaged and degraded pasture land back into healthy forest cover, while providing both short- and long-term income.
The cacao provides income after about three years while the trees that shade the cacao can be managed for timber and other products over the long-term.
If enough farmers shifted to cacao, São Felix could begin to recover important habitat for Amazonian species and help combat carbon pollution since the trees suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as they grow."
http://change.nature...-deforestation/

It's always nice to post good news. Yay!

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Saw this on the news and wanted to share it. One lady in Oakland, California started a program called
Urban Releaf-
and has been planting trees (15,000 so far) for the past 12 years with help from hundred of volunteers.
Video-story here.

Their website-
http://www.urbanreleaf.org/