A Blocked Off Park
Marked as dead: Memorial Park trees sprayed in orange as grim cutdown ofH-Town's canopy begins
Each dead tree has an X, which signifies that it will eventually be cut down.Photo by Whitney Radley
Crews work at Picnic Loop on Tuesday.Photo by Whitney Radley
In some medians and open areas, more than half of the trees are marked fordemolition.Photo by Whitney Radley
At the Picnic Loop, caution tape prevents entrance.Photo by Whitney Radley
September signaled the first birthday of the Great Texas Drought, and Tuesday marks one year since the wildfire season began — Nov. 15, 2010.
The tall pines that make up Houston's canopy wear rusty brown needles this autumn, serving as a stark reminder of the toll: No rain, rampant fire danger, a risk to public health — and an expensive bill.
It's a blight, and a sad vision of what is to come — swaths of unshaded pathways and medians as well as a severe thinning of the wooded areas.
And now, whether jogging intimately through the trails or just driving down Memorial Parkway, it's impossible to miss the scores of trunks marked by fluorescent orange spray paint. Marked to be chopped down as beyond savable.
It's a blight, and a sad vision of what is to come — swaths of unshaded pathways and medians as well as a severe thinning of the wooded areas.
The City of Houston hasn't updated its estimate of dead trees since early September, when it put the total around 2,800, but that number appears to have soared. As CultureMap first reported, Trees for Houston is projecting that 66 million trees will end up dying in the greater Houston area because of this year's drought.
Though the Houston Parks and Recreation Department has been chopping down immediately hazardous trees since late summer, the first large-scale systematic sweep of dead trees in Memorial Park began this week, starting with the Picnic Loop.
Caution tape lines the fences and the gates, and the area is closed to most pedestrian and vehicular traffic while crews fell trees and load them into large trucks for hauling. The City will continue to close off sections of the park to clear underbrush and cut dead trees, bit by bit.
"We advise that if people see something that says 'This area closed,' they should stay out," said Estella Espinosa, communications manager for the parks department. "That means crews are working, and we are trying to keep people safe."
Espinosa says that the City is in the planning stage for replanting, which will likely begin on Arbor Day. A call for volunteers will be issued at that time.
