Has anyone else noticed all of the dead trees around you? If you haven't, as you drive by windbreaks and woods, even peoples properties, take note on all the dead trees. Are your own trees dying? Are they turning colors prematurly? Mine are dying. Seventeen fruit trees, twelve maples, one river birch, two pines. At least around these parts in Ohio, the tree die off's started before this summer's heat wave, and we've had rain. Not in abundance, but not a drought. We are talking bare mature trees, that started off dead in Spring. Careful examination on our trees are not indicative of water shortage. Something is happening, globally too. Sign of the times? Hope your hearts are in the Lords hands.
I am glad to hear in other parts of this country things look nice. I do have to say that I'm old enough to remember the drought of 88' and don't remember mass tree die off's. Nor really any other drought conditions (which we are not in here because it has rained) (it has been hot) causing large mature tree die off's. I appreciate all the feed back from all of you. I say something is fishy, and keep your eyes out and watch the small details in our plants and trees. A lot of mutations as well. God bless.
Dying no, going dormant due to lack of rain, yes.
Sign of the times, no, nothing more than global weather patterns. We had the same weather pattern in St Louis in 36 and 54.
I am in TX... Plano, same as Melanie.
We live on a heavily wooded lot and we have not had any tree issues. We do however, spend money yearly for routine pruning, injections if needed, etc. We have live oak, white oak, cedar elm, evergreens and some I don't know the names of.
The main ones I see dead or dying are the newly planted ones in the medians. My tax $ planted them and now my tax $ will remove them...
We are not in the drought as badly as we were last year but we are still on water restrictions.
I'd say we are normal for TX. I don't sit back and worry about the what ifs. Weather patterns change all the time.
Well, sure it's been an especially hot dry summer for much of our country. This will take a toll on the ENTIRE food chain.
However, we have had (and will have again) especially cool wet summers. Which will ALSO have an effect on the food chain.
I really don't think it's a sign of apocalypse for which we need to pray to God to save us all from. It's just NATURE, created by God anyway.
Coping skills are not my strong point either. But no, I am not giving up hope quite yet. I hope you won't either.
:)
Well, our trees are used to the heat. No weird weather patterns here, heat is the norm. Everything looks normal and pretty.
Drought years are tough on the trees.
Any that had weaknesses to begin with die - the strong can hold up a bit better.
If any were planted within a year - their roots are not deep enough to see them through.
You have to water them.
They have those bags you can fill with water that can drip slowly to keep the tree watered.
We had a bad drought 5 years ago - the lawn was crunchy.
This year is not so bad - we get a huge down pour roughly once a week.
Make sure the trees are truly dead before you remove them - they might just be dormant.
If they are dead, remove them so they don't create a fire hazard.
This is the driest the mid-west has had it since 1954.
It will bounce back again.
My trees look nice and green. Maybe your trees look like they are dying since it's HOT?
We've lost two large, beautiful trees that appeared healthy. We had a tree expert take a look, and he showed us the stress fractures caused by the drought last summer. He told us it could take up to two years to see the full effect of the severe drought on the trees in this area. Now much of the rest of the country is experiencing what we went through last year, so I imagine many trees will be lost. It makes me sad to lose the trees, but I don't read anything else into it.
I live in Texas and there is always a shortage of water I think. Last summer was the worse that the Dallas area has seen. We are still recovering from it and still adding to the low water supplies. I was really mad last year when in the middle of the hottest drought, they planted baby trees in the middle of the median area of the road (there is grass, but traffic on each side). I couldn't believe it, they were talking about "going green" for the environment, but why in the world would you plant trees in the middle of July during a drought when they knew they had to water every day by truck? Just didn't make any sense to me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for going green, but give the tree a chance, to me that is just wrong.
Last year was worse than this year, but I still see some trees that aren't going to make it.
I notice some trees in our area are dying or at least loosing their leaves prematurely. Bushes are wilting, grass is brown, crunchy and dormant.
The weeds seem to be managing just fine, however.
But, this started for us after our heat wave and drought started.
Actually, in my area most of the trees are thriving. Even after hurricane Irene and then the freak snowstorm at Halloween when there was massive tree damage that shut down most of the east coast for over a week, the damaged trees that weren't cut down are still growing and green. The cherry tree in my yard that got split in half is thriving beyond belief. So is our Japanese pine tree, which was pretty severely damaged but you'd never know it now. Ditto with our front hedges and the woods behind our house.
CT actually has a problem with not pruning the trees back enough.
The orchards are doing really well too, and CT is an orchard and farming state. It's been weird the last couple of years, though, where crops are ready sooner than expected and/or there's over-supply (like last year with apples and peaches). This year our autumn harvests should be moderate to abundant since we had a mild winter.
We haven't had as much rain as we should, but we're not in drought conditions yet. This is a pretty typical New England summer, frankly. We're used to extremes of all weather.
You'll also be happy to know that the tobacco fields are doing well this year. :-) Last year they were a bust because the 2010 Winter into 2012 January was so horrible... we had snow through April I think... and a very short summer in 2011 so the tobacco fields in tobacco valley didn't even get planted that year. This year, they're thriving. They're gorgeous, even though they'll turn your lungs into seeping bags of tar.
Lots of stress in nature in these parts...All I see is brown as well. We have young trees in our yard and have been doing our best to water them so they won't die.
We have a growing infestation of the emerald ash borer around here, so all our ash trees are stressed or dying. They're being cut down as needed. Other than that, all the other trees around here are looking great. Stuff happens. Sometimes it's cyclical. I wouldn't be too worried about it as you can always plant more trees.
The trees around my home are mostly perfectly healthy... There is a patch of dead trees that were caused by a bunch of Japanese beetles... but after the owners treated for them it stopped spreading.
Our city tries very hard to keep the area nice and green... they put bags on the trees in the city, and keep them watered so that they don't die in the extreme heat we have been having... and we are actually seeing a lot of new growth on them. Up in the mountains, the trees that are downhill and closer to sources of water are much healthier than the higher ones that don't get as much... So I chalk most of that to this heat wave we have been experiencing.
Here in the forest... Where trees weren't exploding winter before last (we had a warm winter when everyone else was blizzard'd in, or with record lows), and only have 70 degrees to contend with this summer?
Everything is pretty normal.
Yes, I live in Columbus and one tree in back yard is dying, but a main road off my neighborhood has had many trees cut because they died; others are marked to be cut down and are also dead :-(
Its so sad because I LOVE trees, especially the one in my house.
I am in AZ and if anything should be brown and dead, it would be here. But the only tree I have in our yard is a lemon and its nice and green. So all is well here, but personally, I think we are in the End Times.
We are in a drought and our trees are fine.
