Do Your Trees Still Have a Pulse? Because the Texas Drought Is Picking Them Off Like Flies

This is a giant, beautiful tree that rose majestically over the triangle in our neighborhood. It’s gone. Dead. Yesterday morning, it split and fell over onto the street. Thankfully, it did not hit a car, jogger, child or pet.

I’m a little miffed. A neighbor tells me she called the City of Dallas and Lind Koop’s office two weeks ago, warning them the tree was dead and likely to split as another one had earlier. The city refused to come out and take the tree down. Last night, about 9 p.m., a lone tree trimmer from the city was out and using his truck headlights, trying his best to get most of the limbs off the road. When I stopped by to offer him water, he told me he was the solo tree trimmer on staff on call for the whole city. Budget cut-backs and all. He also said it would have been easier to cut the tree down first before it fell. As it turns out, the city spent all day today in my ‘hood over at the triangle today, chopping the tree into removal logs.

Check your trees, especially if they have not been watered — there is no irrigation system on our triangle. Huge, dead trees can be dangerous. The city’s tree trimmer told me a huge limb fell on a man in a truck this week over near Dolphin Road. Thankfully, he was in a big truck and was not injured. But after this summer’s heat, the trees may soon be falling around and on top of us!