Texas Forest Service personnel will be doing a survey throughout the next two months as part of a drought assessment program designed to get a clearer picture of the mortality rate of trees that died as a result of the 2011 drought.
Work crews will go to 700 plots of land to perform a physical count of dead trees in a 75-foot radius on each plot. Along with taking the count, they will gather information on the prevalence of bark beetles and hypoxlon canker, two potentially deadly health concerns for drought stressed trees.
In December 2011, Texas Forest Service announced that an estimated 100-500 million trees had been killed by that year’s drought.
The preliminary estimate was derived by agency foresters, who canvassed local forestry professionals, gathering information from them on the drought and its effect on trees in their respective communities.
The survey is the second phase in the agency’s drought assessment.
From The Hardin County News: https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/hardincountynews/article/Foresters-begin-drought-survey-3576756.php