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(Reuters) Followup Summer drought kills half a billion trees in Texas. In other news, there are trees in Texas. Or...were   (reuters.com) divider line 37
More: Followup, trees, August in Texas, Texas Forest Service, sustainable forestry, Bastrop, hot weather, droughts, summer  
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952 clicks; posted to Geek » on 22 Dec 2011 at 10:51 AM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



37 Comments   (+0 »)
   
 
Forgot_my_password_again
2011-12-22 11:01:12 AM
trees are for pussies
 
natazha
2011-12-22 11:02:10 AM
Imagine the carnage if God didn't love Texas!
 
Wellon Dowd
2011-12-22 11:02:56 AM
Praise Jesus!
 
Maud Dib
2011-12-22 11:07:25 AM
Got a good soaking last night around Austin, maybe an inch or so. I stood out in it like a goddamn idiot, it felt so good.
We're still deep in a drought though, it'll take months of rain to recover.
 
El Freak [TotalFark]
2011-12-22 11:09:14 AM
Yes, subby, there are trees in Texas. Lots of them, in fact. I would imagine most people who have ventured outside the basement are aware of this. Ya see, the information you have acquired from nothing but years of shiatty movies and tv shows just might be a bit inaccurate.
 
bdub77 [TotalFark]
2011-12-22 11:17:41 AM
Good. Do you have any idea how awful trees are? They are parasites. All they do is suck up all the water and make more trees. Do you know where 90% of carbon emissions come from? F*cking trees.

Did you know trees are racists? Yes. They hate black people. More trees killed black people in the Deep South than the KKK. And they voted overwhelmingly for John McCain in 2008.

Did you know trees are responsible for the AIDS epidemic? In fact most trees are homosexuals. Hence the name, the Log Cabin Republicans.

F*cking trees are plotting against us, man. We gotta kill them before they kill us. You see a tree, you destroy it. You rip up that son of a biatch. You burn it. You burn those trees.

They all gotta burn.
 
Kar98
2011-12-22 11:18:05 AM
What does subby reckon all that green stuff is on satellite pictures?
 
Burr
2011-12-22 11:21:30 AM
There are subby, but they are few and far between

From what I am told, the brown stuff coming up from the ground is grass, but I have never seen it green. Somebody said it is green one week a year.

/likes to visit Texas, despite it being brown and flat
//lives in SE Ohio....where we are very close to being considered a rain forest right now, it was 60 yesterday and pouring rain off and on all day
 
StrikitRich
2011-12-22 11:23:06 AM
What this means is that there will be plenty of wood to BBQ all the cattle that the ranchers can't afford to keep.
 
nytmare
2011-12-22 11:23:17 AM
Trees are (or were) all on the east side of Texas. The desert part is to the West and North. It's like two different countries rolled into one state.
 
StrikitRich
2011-12-22 11:24:00 AM
Kar98: What does subby reckon all that green stuff is on satellite pictures?

Mexican flags on the back of old pick-ups?
 
Unshavenhelga
2011-12-22 11:32:46 AM
We're still 16 inches under average, despite the recent rain. I'm waiting to see which trees on my acreage are going to end up dead.

\5 acres of mostly live oaks.
\\sad to see them stressed
 
Maud Dib
2011-12-22 11:35:30 AM
StrikitRich: What this means is that there will be plenty of wood to BBQ all the cattle that the ranchers can't afford to keep.

img689.imageshack.us

Luling City Market, last week.

i865.photobucket.com

i865.photobucket.com
 
puny
2011-12-22 11:36:47 AM
I live in the Panhandle. We've only had about 7" total of precipitation for the year, including this week's snowfall. Our average yearly totals are usually around 20", which is still pretty dry, but this year was just sad.
 
Kar98
2011-12-22 11:48:07 AM
It's really just the western three areas of Texas that are either mostly grassland or desert. The other half is quit tree-ful.

www.lakelubbers.com
 
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
2011-12-22 11:56:17 AM
It's a shame the trees didn't pray harder.
 
aearra
2011-12-22 11:58:57 AM
Well the eastern part of texas will be treeless if this continues. The problem for texas will be what will replace them as the climate warms.
 
TheWhoppah
2011-12-22 12:00:35 PM
Last summer there were big fires near Austin that also killed a bunch of trees:
wildfiretoday.com
this link is hot
 
Pochas
2011-12-22 12:01:20 PM
Good thing global warming doesn't exist and if it does exist it's not man made and if it is man made then it will be good for people overall anyway!!

Don't mess with TX!
 
Shakes999
2011-12-22 12:02:40 PM
Its been pretty wet in Austin for about 3 weeks now, pretty much rain non stop.
 
drjekel_mrhyde
2011-12-22 12:51:58 PM
Shakes999: Its been pretty wet in Austin for about 3 weeks now, pretty much rain non stop.

Isn't that the only normal city in the state.
 
RyansPrivates
2011-12-22 01:14:21 PM
El Freak: Yes, subby, there are trees in Texas. Lots of them, in fact. I would imagine most people who have ventured outside the basement are aware of this. Ya see, the information you have acquired from nothing but years of shiatty movies and tv shows just might be a bit inaccurate.

In fact Dallas has one of the largest urban hardwood forests in the country (if not the largest, depends on who you ask, http://www.trinityrivercorridor.org/html/great_trinity_forest.html)
 
Lord Dimwit [TotalFark]
2011-12-22 01:48:22 PM
I lost two trees this year and several bushes. It sucked.

It's been nice and rainy for the last couple of weeks though here in Austin, and we welcome it. (My wife is upset at how muddy the dogs' paws are, but she acknowledges we need the rain more than we need a mud-free laundry room).

Now if we can just get a nice hard freeze to kill the mosquitoes, or maybe even snow like we did last year, that would be awesome.
 
wildstarr [TotalFark]
2011-12-22 02:02:33 PM
It is really sad what media has done to boost the misconception of Texas.

So I'll do my part. I assume everyone from Jersey is like the cast of Jersey Shore.
 
Kar98
2011-12-22 02:46:04 PM
wildstarr: It is really sad what media has done to boost the misconception of Texas.

Well, the people of Texas aren't helping.
 
HotIgneous Intruder
2011-12-22 02:56:48 PM
It's as though a billion voices cried out ...

/Here comes the dust bowl, people.
 
HotIgneous Intruder
2011-12-22 02:58:06 PM
aearra: Well the eastern part of texas will be treeless if this continues. The problem for texas will be what will replace them as the climate warms.

Trees that are more drought resistant, I'd bet.

Or iguanas. Billions of iguanas.
 
soakitincider
2011-12-22 03:08:09 PM
pine in east texas, oak and juniper in central/NE texas. mesquite in panhandle and west texas. also, everyone's favorite tree, creosote.
 
soakitincider
2011-12-22 03:10:05 PM
puny: I live in the Panhandle. We've only had about 7" total of precipitation for the year, including this week's snowfall. Our average yearly totals are usually around 20", which is still pretty dry, but this year was just sad.

im from borger, and now live in austin. needless to say, there's trees down in this neck of the woods. although there is the occasional cedar or evergreen up north. i'm liking the disc golf courses in amarillo/pampa/borger nowadays.
 
Donkey Hodie
2011-12-22 04:01:13 PM
I lost three of the twelve trees in my yard this year due to drought. It really sucks. It's not cheap to get them taken out, at least by professionals who won't rip a hole in your roof in the process.
 
dready zim
2011-12-22 05:33:49 PM
According to TFA if only 1 in 10 trees cast out a single seed that grows out of the many many they throw out then the 1/2 billion trees will be replaced in a single season. On top of that the life that needs dead trees to survive will have lots of food.

sense of perspective people. If it`s EVERY year for a while then it`s a problem. One season is not a problem the same way weather is not climate.
 
theurge14
2011-12-22 06:06:16 PM
Scrub cedars, mesquites and caliche dirt. That's the majority of this state. And It burns because it wants to.
 
dragonchild
2011-12-22 06:20:15 PM
El Freak: Yes, subby, there are trees in Texas. Lots of them, in fact.

Yep, and like everything else in Texas, they attack you. The mesquite trees can take out dump trucks and the cedar pollen is basically a chemical weapon attack.

Unshavenhelga: We're still 16 inches under average

Average only being 5" to begin with, this almost justifies the truck nuts, I guess.
 
HotIgneous Intruder
2011-12-22 08:00:35 PM
Whah do Gawd hate teh Texas?
 
HotIgneous Intruder
2011-12-22 08:01:42 PM
theurge14: Scrub cedars, mesquites and caliche dirt. That's the majority of this state. And It burns because it wants to.

It burns because ... SATAN.
 
Donkey Hodie
2011-12-22 10:55:34 PM
dready zim: sense of perspective people. If it`s EVERY year for a while then it`s a problem. One season is not a problem the same way weather is not climate.

Yes, sense of perspective. I lost 25% of the trees in my yard this year, and by my rough guess, that's about the same ratio of all the trees lost to drought in my part of the world. In every yard, in every park, along every street in town. It's very noticeable driving around town that the trees have been thinned out considerably in just one summer. Some of those trees take 30 to 50 years to get full size. How many drought years will it take to completely raze a forest at that rate? Sense of perspective my arse. It's practically a regional ecological disaster.
 
BubbaWilkins [TotalFark]
2011-12-22 10:59:03 PM
dready zim: According to TFA if only 1 in 10 trees cast out a single seed that grows out of the many many they throw out then the 1/2 billion trees will be replaced in a single season. On top of that the life that needs dead trees to survive will have lots of food.

sense of perspective people. If it`s EVERY year for a while then it`s a problem. One season is not a problem the same way weather is not climate.

That's a pretty poor perspective. The trees that are being lost are old growth that took decades and in some cases a century to grow. Saplings are not an even trade and most of those aren't going to live as long as the ones we are losing.
 
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