Trees

Hazards, Quicklink, Trees

No Comments

PINE BARK BEETLES GET TO WORK ON THE WOODLANDS Drought-stressed trees in The Woodlands are under attack! “Since July, nearly 1,000 pine trees have been removed because they were attacked by pine bark beetles, community officials said. And that does not include the hundreds of dead trees on residential property. Recent rain and cooler weather has lessened beetle activity, but sparse, brownish-orange pine trees can still be spotted throughout The Woodlands, which is known for its forested landscape and protective tree covenants. ‘It’s been a major outbreak,’ said John Powers, interim co-manager of the Community Associations of The Woodlands. ‘In July and August, we were adding dozens of trees to the tree removal list every day.’ The infestation isn’t just in Montgomery County. It’s affecting trees throughout Southeast Texas, including Harris, Chambers, San Jacinto and Waller counties, according to the Texas Forest Service.” [Houston Chronicle]

Critters, Hazards, Trees

09/18/09 1:31pm

Rooting Out the Broadway Oaks

Galveston, Quicklink, Streetscapes, Trees

2 Comments

ROOTING OUT THE BROADWAY OAKS The 510 dead oak trees that line Broadway get a week’s reprieve, as Galveston’s oak-removal extravaganza continues: “State officials have said they want new trees planted along Broadway in the same spots as their predecessors to maintain the 100-year-old patterns of the plantings. But forestry experts warn that planting new trees in holes surrounded by webs of existing roots could choke them off and kill them. The cityâ€™s tree committee hopes to start planting trees along other roadways in November, but with all of the approvals and agreements needed for planting around Broadway, the historic boulevard could stay bare for another year, Cahill said.” [Galveston County Daily News; previously on Swamplot]

77550, Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Streetscapes, Trees

Bellaire

08/25/09 9:52am

John Teas, 1934-2009

Gardening, Houston History, Landscape, Quicklink, Trees

9 Comments

JOHN TEAS, 1934-2009 That 1916 house on Teas Nursery property at 4400 Bellaire Blvd. — now home to the company’s landscaping business — was his birthplace. He died yesterday. “His grandfather, Edward ‘Papa’ Teas, Sr., whose family had been in the nursery business since 1843 starting in Indiana, moved his family to Bellaire from Missouri in 1910 to grow and sell produce, but turned to landscaping when a freeze in 1913 wiped out his business. He was responsible for introducing azaleas and crepe myrtle to the area, so legend goes, and for planting some of Houstonâ€™s enduring natural beauty, including Rice Universityâ€™s oaks. John Teas helped plant the oaks along the Rice campus on Fannin Street as a boy. The familyâ€™s nursery businesses extended from Fort Bend County through Conroe, but the roots were sunk the deepest in Bellaire, where the nursery and landscaping business continue to this day.” [Bellaire Examiner]

Bellaire, Gardening, Houston History, Landscape, Oak, Trees

Comments

08/14/09 3:46pm

Comment of the Day: Inner Loop To-Do List

Home Design, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Trees

1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: INNER LOOP TO-DO LIST â€œ’Improvment’ is a matter of oneâ€™s values and in Texas, nothing suceeds like excess. Plan for in-loop: remove all trees, build lot line to lot line, add patina of sophistication (re: cheese closets, gift wrapping rooms) sell and run. Goal? Push all those troublesome low to middle income people out into the suburbs.” [finness, commenting on Comment of the Day: Grading the Replacements]

Comments, Home Design, Real Estate Marketing, Redevelopment, Trees

Comments

07/27/09 2:09pm

Comment of the Day: The Trees of Wilshire Village

Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Quicklink, Trees

5 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TREES OF WILSHIRE VILLAGE “Actually, it seems that efforts *may* be taken to spare at least some of the trees on the Wilshire Village property. From my vantage point across the street, I can see orange plastic fencing surrounding a number of treesâ€¦I can also see at least two bulldozers on the property, as well as a lot of broken-up pavement in the parking lots behind the apartments. I fear that the end is near and that I am soon bidding farewell to an old friendâ€“but if we *do* see some of trees spared, that is at least some solace.” [M. Martin, commenting on Wilshire Village Apartments: Actual Tenants Actually Being Evicted]

77098, Comments, Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Trees, Wilshire Village

07/14/09 11:08am

No Mercy for Galveston Street Trees

Galveston, Quicklink, Streets, Trees

18 Comments

NO MERCY FOR GALVESTON STREET TREES Hundreds of Galveston residents have been calling the city’s tree-appeal hotline, arguing that particular street trees targeted in the massive post-Ike chainsaw sweep should not be cut down. After seeing new leaves on the 3-story Live Oak in front of his Avenue L home, one resident offered the city $1,000 not to chop it down. His tree got a re-evaluation, but didn’t exhibit enough new growth to get a reprieve. “If the city could give the trees more time to recover, and if it rained soon, a few more might stand a chance of survival, [Texas Forest Service urban forester Pete] Smith said. But the city will get reimbursed only for the expensive removal process through Sept. 12. Between now and then, crews are scheduled to remove an estimated 11,000 trees in the public right of way and about 30,000 trees on private property. Live oak tress must have at least 30 percent of their leaves to be spared. Other varieties must have at least 50 percent of their leaves.” [Galveston County Daily News]

77550, Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Hurricane Ike, Streetscapes, Trees

06/10/09 9:07am

The Great Galveston Summer Tree Carving Festival

Galveston, Trees

7 Comments

Salt water from Hurricane Ike damaged 11,000 trees on city property in Galveston — and as many as 31,000 more on private property will need to be cut down. The Chronicle‘s Allan Turner reports:

The process will involve a tree-by-tree examination, the Texas Forest Serviceâ€™s Pete Smith said. Candidates for cutting will include most tree varieties that have lost 50 percent or more of their canopy. Live oaks with at least 30 percent of their leaves may be spared. The live oaks, Smith said, are â€œeither recovering or dying,â€ and more time is needed to determine which is the case.

Officials hope to remove doomed trees [on city property] by the middle of September, thereby qualifying for federal payments that could cover up to 75 percent of the cityâ€™s removal cost.

. . . Removing every dead tree on both public and private land could cost about $5 million, according to city estimates, although the federal government will pay to remove only those in the city right of way.

Thousands of dead trees to be removed soon [Houston Chronicle]
Previously in Swamplot: Galveston for Tourists: Not Quite Yet

Photo: Flickr user lutzman–

Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Hurricane Ike, Trees

Development Restrictions

02/04/09 7:56am

A Bright Future for Street Bushes

Landscape, Quicklink, Streets, Trees

6 Comments

A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR STREET BUSHES “A proposed ordinance before council would prohibit the planting of tall trees, including live oaks, under power lines. The measure originally was intended to strengthen existing rules to protect trees in public rights of way from being cut down or hacked up by developers. But the proposed ban on planting live oaks under electric lines â€” a last-minute addition to the measure â€” has a vocal group of tree lovers dismayed. Their main complaint centers on the live oakâ€™s usefulness for hiding power lines. ‘If this were to pass, we would have to look a lot more at the ugliest feature of our city: power lines,’ said Hugh Kelly, a former general counsel for Houston Light & Power who advocated against the change on behalf of two neighborhood groups. ‘And we would not be able to look at one of the prettiest features: live oaks.'” [Houston Chronicle]

Development Restrictions, Landscape, Streets, Trees

Land for Sale

12/12/08 5:49pm

Curtains for Kirby Court?

Real Estate Marketing, Trees, Upper Kirby

5 Comments

What will happen to the Kirby Court Apartments just west of Whole Foods? The 1949 garden apartments on oak-lined Steel St. make up the major portion of a 5.744-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Kirby and Alabama being offered for sale or ground lease, the River Oaks Examiner reports. Also included in the parcel being sold by the Dickey Estate: retail properties facing Alabama, Kirby, and Kipling.

Cushman & Wakefield’s flyer for the property brags that there’s “potential to abandon Steel Street for an additional 33,750 sq. ft.” How much abandonment could those oaks survive?

77098, Apartments, Land for Sale, Real Estate Marketing, Trees, Upper Kirby

11/03/08 3:01pm

Galveston for Tourists: Not Quite Yet

Galveston, Tourism, Trees

3 Comments

Dead Trees in Galveston after Hurricane Ike

Sure, we’ve all heard about the damage to Galveston — from news reports and the sad tales of returning residents. But how’s the place looking to tourists? Lou Minatti took his kids for a visit over the weekend:

The island is in sad shape. But there were some bright spots. The Moody Gardens Aquarium is open, and since there are so few tourists they have greatly reduced the entrance fee. (The Rain Forest Pyramid is closed until further notice.) The kids did get to see a beautiful shrimp trawler up close. They were fascinated.

What struck me most was the fact that all of the trees are dead. All of the beautiful live oaks, planted soon after the 1900 hurricane, are no more. They were killed by the flood of salt water. The only trees to survive are the palms and Norfolk Island pines. My best guess is that every deciduous tree more than 5 blocks from the seawall is dead.

Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Hurricane Ike, The Strand, Tourism, Trees

Construction Materials

10/16/08 9:59am

Got Mulch?

Disaster Aftermath, Green Design and Development, Landscape, Quicklink, Trees

5 Comments

GOT MULCH? What to do with the 5.6 million cubic yards of wood waste left after Hurricane Ike? The city doesn’t know either — so it’s sponsoring an ideas competition: “The contest will pay $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 for the top three ideas for how to best use the heaps of debris, which city officials have said would be enough to fill up the Astrodome nearly four times over. . . . So far, the city has given about 700,000 cubic yards of wood waste to two companies that will turn it into mulch and compost for resale. But the sheer volume of debris far outstrips local market demand for recycling it. . . . ‘We don’t want to have to fill up our precious landfill sites with a bunch of wooded waste, so we’re going to try to recycle all of it,’ [Mayor] White said. ‘It will probably be the single biggest recycling project that there is in the country this year.'” [Houston Chronicle; competition site]

Construction Materials, Disaster Aftermath, Green Design, Hurricane Ike, Landscape, Recycling, Trees

Art

10/15/08 2:49pm

Seen on the Street: Blown Away

Construction Materials, Disaster Aftermath, Humble, Seabrook, Spring, Trees, Wildlife

2 Comments

Van Missing Letters, Houston

A few fun — and not-so-fun — sights around town: First, Houston visitor Mike Smith’s photo shows some of the few letters left after Ike’s attack.

More hurricane photo souvenirs below!

77338, 77373, Art, Construction Materials, Disaster Aftermath, Humble, Hurricane Ike, Seabrook, Spring, Transportation, Trees, Wildlife

Home Decor

10/09/08 12:01pm

Southeast Houston Full Employment Plan

Landscape, Trees

No Comments

White Seeds of Chinese Tallow Tree, Houston

Collect white berries from all those Chinese Tallow Trees. Save them for winter, then sell them in fancy boutiques. There’s a market!

Chinese Tallow, Home Decor, Invasive Plants, Landscape, Trees

Greenway Plaza

08/11/08 11:41am

Costco $17K Left Turn Green Light