According to a recent article on Reuters,
10% of urban forests have succumbed to the Texas drought.
We live and work on the outskirts of the Sam Houston National Forest in the Piney Woods of east Texas. Pine trees seemed abundant in the densely forested suburbs north of Houston. Last summer was the driest on record. It was also the second hottest. By the end of the summer, dead pine trees lined every road.
Then in January the rain began... storms... wind... and downed trees everywhere. In our own backyard, we had 5 trees fall in less than 2 months.
Yesterday, a work crew began removing 17 pine trees from our back yard. Many of them dead. Here is a view from my porch yesterday afternoon:
Same view this morning:
It just occured to me that we now have room for a vegetable garden! I'll post more photos tomorrow. There are still three trees left to come down and a lot of debris to be hauled.