An Unwelcome New Look
The Woodlands faces life without trees: Community's signature crippled,thousands cut down
The township is removing trees by the hundreds.Eat Local
What will The Woodlands look like without its trees?
What would The Woodlands look like without its namesake trees?
We may soon see: The planned community's township is in the process of removing hundreds of dead trees each day.
"This isn't something new," Chris Nunes, director of the township's Parks and Recreation Department, tells CultureMap.
The township is removing approximately 1,800 each month — not including trees on citizens' personal property — while actively tracking and tagging other trees for removal.
Nunes cites an integrated Forest Management Plan, developed nearly 10 years ago, which has dictated the best approach to retaining and caring for The Woodlands' canopy. Working along those guidelines, the department began removing trees in April of 2011.
That effort, he says, really picked up in October, once the full extent of the summer's drought became apparent. Now, the township is removing approximately 1,800 each month — not including trees on citizens' personal property — while actively tracking and tagging other trees for removal.
An operation of this scale can get pricey, and the township set aside only $353,000 for tree removal in the initial budget document. (That was drafted in May of 2011, before the "Worst Summer Ever.")
In February, the Board of Directors approved an additional $818,600 for tree removal, as part of an overall $1.89 million budget amendment that includes funds earmarked for reforestation, irrigation, streetscape planting and a tree audit.
Nunes says that environmental conditions over the next several months are crucial to determining the complete impact of the 2011 drought on trees in The Woodlands. The township will conduct research before beginning reforestation.
