Drought Killing Texas Trees and Hurting State’s Economy

How do dying trees affect the state's economy you ask?  Well, stop and think about all the things and stuff that's made from forest products.

From lumber and building materials to paper products, to thousands of jobs,the forest products industry is a major driver of the Texas economy.  If trees are dying off, we all feel it.

The Texas Forest Service says millions of trees have been lost to drought and wildfires, and the financial losses increase by the day.

The latest TFS report says since wildfire season began in November of last year, more than 2100 wildfires have charred more than 200 thousand acres and destroyed 175 million cubic feet of timber.

In stump value alone, all those trees were worth $97 million dollars where they stood. When harvested they could have been turned into $1.6 billion worth of forest products and industry related jobs, which would have added about $3.4 billion dollars to the Texas economy.

That's what we mean when we say the drought is choking the state's economy.

via Drought killing Texas trees, impacting state’s economy - Your Houston News: News.

You can see pine trees turning brown everywhere, and foresters say if they're brown they are dead.  Defoliated hardwood trees have a 50-50 chance of coming back next spring, but the pine trees are gone and not coming back.

Dead trees in residential and public areas are a serious danger and should be removed.  Foresters say trees in non high hazard areas can be left standing, so birds and other wildlife can have their way with them.

Foresters also recommend removing freshly dead trees now while they can still be sold as timber.  Decayed trees can now be sold as waste fuel to the new biomass power plants in Lufkin and Nacogdoches county.