Flickr photo: NoVA_MxerToday's issue of Science features a study by U.S. Geological Survey ecologists Nathan L. Stephenson and Phillip van Mantgem about how trees in the Western U.S. are dying twice as fast as they did a couple of decades ago. Reached by phone in his California office, Stephenson said there are two likely causes: Trees are under increased drought stress from longer summers, while pests and diseases are happily burgeoning in warmer temperatures.For those of you who haven't been o
Almost immediately after Schutze posted his wrap-up from the Monday-morning press conference at Dallas City Hall, where Mayor Tom Leppert drove his Chevy to the levees, a Friend of Unfair Park pointed our attention to Page 18 of the Trinity River Corridor Project briefing the city council will cover this morning. Because on Page 18, it says the city will need to spend $3 million to remove "approximately 2,800 trees" from the Trinity levees.Which, sure, is but one issue among many: $29 million in
At last night's meeting of the Urban Forest Advisory Committee, held deep in the bowels of City Hall, the next chapter in Dallas's tree saga started to unfold. The short version: Article X of the Dallas City Code, which contains the city's landscape and tree ordinances, is under revision, and if you've got anything to say, say it now. David Marquis, a former member of the city's Green Building Task Force, put it to the committee this way:"More and more people in the city of Dallas want a tree pr
Monday's public hearing on changes to Dallas's tree ordinance -- Article X of the Dallas City Code, to be specific -- was quiet, cordial, and borderline erudite. Every commenter seemed as well-informed as he or she was passionate, and the breadth of experience -- from two former city council members to a certified landscape architect and representatives from several neighborhood and building associations -- almost eclipsed the fact that there were only eight people who actually commented during
Aim an airplane-mounted laser-scanning device at Reverchon Park, and this is what it looks like. Trippy, hunh?Too bad that tree-hugger Alexa's not here -- me, I can't see the forest for the trees, but she knows all about the city's efforts to take an inventory of our trees and the ramifications of this particular head count. Still, there's the question of how to do it in the first place. Because, see, back in Ye Olden Days, volunteers would actually go out and actually count the tree, which s
