Efforts by Woodlanders to save water is now threatening the very this which gave the city its name: Trees.
Ken Trott, project coordinator for the Woodland Tree Foundation, says the evidence of conservation can be seen everywhere by the yellow lawns and even in the lawns which have been removed entirely.
But now it seems the city’s stately trees are in jeopardy as well.
“With the cutback in watering, trees grow thirsty unless we reserve some of the saved water for them,” stated Trott.
“I have been making the rounds through the neighborhoods of Woodland as I spread the news of the Tree Foundation’s free shade tree program,” he said. “I see many stressed and dying public and private trees. I also field frequent questions about watering trees in a drought. My response is an investment of a relatively small amount of water pays huge dividends with a shade tree. It is worth the water.”
Only a few months ago, Trott was telling people about the necessity of protecting trees, offering up watering solutions for young and mature trees. The reason, he said, during one of several “water-wise” presentations sponsored by the city of Woodland was to keep the area cool not simply for help people but to reduce the frequency of watering landscaping.
As temperatures climbed above 100 degrees this week, Trott’s words took on added significance.
“To find out if your tree is getting enough water, dig down six to eight inches in the soil under the tree’s drip line,” he stated recently. “If the soil is dry and crumbly, the tree needs deep watering. For a mature tree, run a soaker hose spiraling out from the trunk to the drip line for a couple of hours. Make sure the soil under the tree is covered with mulch several inches deep. If watering with a sprinkler, run it under the drip line until a tuna or pet food can is full, but avoid run-off.”
Basically, he said “A deep soak once a month for most mature trees is sufficient, depending on tree variety.”
Trott said the types of trees which seem to be most at risk are those most frequently planted in Woodland: Ash, Elm, Birch, flowering pear, Hackberry, Goldenrain, Maple, London Plane (Sycamore), Crape Myrtle and Ginkgo. All require the most frequent deep watering.
Those trees Trott has personally seen that appear to be in distress, however, are flowering pear and birch.
Most of the trees in difficulty seem to be younger, between 1 to 3 years old, which need at least 5 gallons of water a week.
“The most dramatic tree suffering and mortality that I’ve seen has been in the newer parts of town, (such as) the Spring Lake development,” Trott noted. “The trees that appear to be suffering worst, are the ‘public’ trees in the planting strips along the sidewalk and curb, and on the median strips.”
Trott reported that trees on Heritage Drive in Spring Lake were the worse off. He said there is a line of trees where every other one is dead. “They happen to be Ornamental pear, but throughout the neighborhoods out there, the median and street treats are dead and stressed, regardless of variety,” he noted. “I haven’t checked school grounds, but with school out, I worry about their trees.”
City trees aren’t the only ones in distress either. George Gentry, the executive director of the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, just issued emergency regulations to allow individual landowners or professional foresters to apply for an exemption to cut dead and dying trees of any size without the typical timber harvest plan, submission requirements, and completion and stocking report requirements.
The U.S. Forest Service’s preliminary assessment of forest conditions in some of the most severely drought-impacted areas showed that as of April about 12½ million dead trees were identified — four times that of all of California’s tree die-off in 2014.
Meanwhile, despite the numbers of distressed trees, Trott is still recommending people plant them. However, her recommends drought-tolerant varieties such as Valley Oak, an Accolade Elm or a Chinese Pistache.
“Even the widely planted Crape Myrtle is a low water user,” he noted.
“It takes three years to plant a tree, meaning, carefully watering the young tree weekly with at least five gallons over a period of three years,” he stated. “The frequency of watering can decline over the three years, with the amount per watering increasing.”
The important thing is, Trott implied, is that trees don’t have to die in order to conserve water. By making sure trees are watered correctly they can continue to provide shade which will, in turn, conserve water.
