Tag Archives: trees

Time once again to recycle your Christmas tree

Speaking of annual traditions… Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) encourages residents to recycle live Christmas trees after the holidays. This holiday season, assist the City of Houston in diverting landfill waste by repurposing your live Christmas tree into mulch … Continue reading

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Christmas trees and climate change

Sorry to be a grinch. Christmas tree breeder Jim Rockis knows what it looks like when one dies long before it can reach a buyer. Rockis farms trees in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where he and other producers often grow … Continue reading

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Yes, let’s plant more trees

Good to see. Some of Houston’s most vulnerable neighborhoods could soon see new shade trees and better parks. Driving the news: The Houston Endowment granted $8 million to Trees for Houston and the Houston Parks Board to help increase access to … Continue reading

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Gulfton BRT route approved

Moving forward. Long-sought improvements to transit service in Gulfton – arguably among the Houston region’s most transit-starved areas – have an official line on the map, though rapid service remains years away. Metropolitan Transit Authority officials on Thursday approved the … Continue reading

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Squeezing in the Gulfton BRT extension

Hope they find a way everyone can live with to make this work. Bringing better bus service to one of Houston’s most transit-dependent and oft-ignored areas has Metro officials balancing, yet again, how best to upgrade service without upsetting advocates and drivers. Approval … Continue reading

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Winter storm 2023

I don’t know if this one will get a name, but I can imagine what a lot of folks are calling it. Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in their homes Thursday after more than a day without power, including many … Continue reading

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It’s time to recycle your Christmas tree

If you’re in the city of Houston and you want your tree to get mulched, here’s how to do it. Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) encourages residents to recycle live Christmas trees after the holidays. The holiday season is … Continue reading

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Now is a great time to buy a Christmas tree

Procrastinators rejoice. When it came to buying a Christmas tree in Houston it paid off to procrastinate. Prices, already high last year, jumped further this year as retailers sought to lock in supplies despite increases spurred by skyrocketing fertilizer and … Continue reading

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Zombie trees

We are still experiencing the effects of the freeze. Zombies are in your yard, in parks and along roadsides and other green spaces throughout Texas. They’re trees that are partly dead and partly alive, struggling to move forward and waiting … Continue reading

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The freeze was hard on the trees

Palm trees in particular. Galveston’s majestic palm trees could be another casualty of Texas’s four-day freeze last month. The cold snap that left millions of Texans without power and caused burst pipes across the state has also had a pronounced … Continue reading

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Houston’s hottest neighborhoods

That’s temperature hot, not realtor hot. This summer, Houston joins 13 other cities in a massive, community-driven, heat mapping project. More than 80 volunteers like Powers and her son, dubbed “street scientists” by the organizing groups, covered roughly 300 square … Continue reading

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It’s tree-recycling time

Here’s what you need to know. You have nearly three weeks to do this. Don’t miss out.

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It’s not easy being green

I have mixed feelings about this. The “Blue Trees” artist has stirred up a hive of trouble for Houston’s parks and recreation department, complaining that the city plagiarized an installation he created five years ago by re-painting the same grove … Continue reading

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House takes a different direction on trees

Better than the Senate version, for sure. The Texas House added a potential wrinkle to Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session agenda on Thursday, giving early approval to a bill that would allow property owners to plant new trees to offset … Continue reading

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There is trouble with the trees

More to the point, there is trouble with the idea that municipal tree ordinances are somehow a bad thing, but that’s where we are, and it’s got some folks worried. More than 40,000 trees were lost to [Hurricane] Ike, according … Continue reading

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Greg Abbott’s war on trees

This is just bizarre. One of the 20 items Gov. Greg Abbott has asked lawmakers to consider during the upcoming special session, which will begin July 18, is outlawing local tree regulations. More than 50 cities and towns in Texas … Continue reading

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Like a bridge over Memorial Park

Some fascinating ideas for ensuring the long-term health of Memorial Park. Today Memorial Park is a land divided. The city’s premiere park stretches across 1,500 acres, almost twice as large as New York’s Central Park. But to Thomas Woltz of … Continue reading

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Less drought

Good news. After near-normal rainfall during the spring and summer, this fall a number of drought-ending storm systems began to sweep across Texas, particularly the eastern half of the state. “Drought conditions have ended in most of East and Southeast … Continue reading

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Looking forward on Memorial Park

Meet Shellye Arnold, the new Executive Director of the Memorial Park Conservancy. There is no doubt that it is a pivotal moment for the 89-year old-park. Decimated by the drought of 2011, Memorial Park lost thousands of trees. The conservancy … Continue reading

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Questions about the Memorial Park part of the Uptown/Memorial TIRZ

Lisa Falkenberg reports that some people have raised questions about the Memorial Park part of the Uptown/Memorial TIRZ. Reforestation is sorely needed in a park devastated by hurricane damage and drought. This is a great deal, city leaders and supporters … Continue reading

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LBJ Wildflower Center helping to restore pine trees to Texas

Very cool. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center of The University of Texas at Austin has been selected by the Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) to serve as the local grower of loblolly pines to restore wildfire-damaged Bastrop County. The … Continue reading

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Save those seeds

What would have been worse than the drought and the wildfires in Central Texas that wiped out millions of trees? Not having the wherewithal to properly reforest afterward. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but it was a closer call than you’d … Continue reading

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Rodeo kicks in for tree replanting

Trail riders coming into Houston for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo traditionally camp overnight in Memorial Park on their way to the event. Last year they did this as many of the trees around them were dying from the … Continue reading

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Three hundred million trees

That’s the latest estimate of the toll from last year’s drought. The numbers are ugly. A whopping 301 million trees have died across state forestlands as a result of the 2011 drought, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported Tuesday. The … Continue reading

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A dollar a tree

Replacing the trees lost in the Bastrop fires last summer is going to cost some money, but there’s now a foundation working on raising that money. Flanked by containers bristling with pine tree seedlings, state and local officials on Tuesday … Continue reading

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It was more than drought that killed the trees

So say the experts. Don’t blame the drought for killing an estimated 506 million trees in Texas. At least, don’t blame it exclusively. The drought is only part of the story of why trees are dying, according to a new … Continue reading

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Re-Plant Houston

Memorial Park is about to get some needed attention. As last year’s drought killed thousands of trees in Memorial Park, caretakers realized it was time to speed the pace of a long-planned reforestation. On Friday, Mayor Annise Parker announced that … Continue reading

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More than five million trees lost in the cities

More depressing numbers from the drought. It was a sight more common than usual this past summer: a tree too thirsty to live became another casualty to the drought. City workers would either remove the tree, or, if they were … Continue reading

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“When all the ships come sailing into the arbor”

Want to do something for Houston? Plant a tree. Houston’s battle against the relentless drought, thus far characterized by felling, dismembering and mulching dead trees, entered a new phase Friday as parks officials announced plans for an Arbor Day 2012 … Continue reading

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Half a billion trees

Damn. The current Texas drought has killed as many as 500 million trees 10 percent of the state’s forest cover and the end is not in sight, according to the Texas Forest Service. Some of the hardest-hit areas are in … Continue reading

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Trouble with the trees

The drought gets more expensive for the city of Houston. The drought is about to claim yet more of Houston’s green – this time $4.5 million in tax dollars to remove trees that have died of thirst. Houston’s driest year … Continue reading

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The toll on the trees

CultureMap: Houston, a city long defined by its gigantic live oak trees and lush landscaping, is changing for the worse as the relentless, thrashing sun has taken a toll on all things green and growing. The ongoing drought, which is … Continue reading

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Keep Heights Green

Got this via a Heights mailing list I’m on: Keep Heights Green, a local non-profit organization whose mission is to replant trees in the Greater Heights area lost during Hurricane Ike, is hosting its first fundraising event on Thursday, June … Continue reading

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