GALVESTON — Seven months after Hurricane Ike saturated their roots with salty storm surge, most of the island’s trees are still bare.
The lack of new leaves is a bad sign, said Texas Forest Service experts, who had hoped the trees would have shown some signs of life by now.
Next week, a team from the state agency will assess the trees on public property — many of which were planted after the 1900 Storm — and decide which ones should be replaced.
But as 4-foot saplings take the place of 30-foot trees, it will be another 100 years before the island’s landscape looks like it did before the storm, experts say.
Just Not Coming Back
Just a few weeks after Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 13, flooding 75 percent of the island, a team of experts from the Texas Forest Service evaluated the leafless, lifeless-looking trees that line many of the city’s roads.
Experts urged island residents to be patient. But even they now say the trees that still look like they did Sept. 14 are probably not going to recover.
“The trees just aren’t coming back as well as we thought they would,” said Mickey Merritt, the bayou region urban forest coordinator for the state agency.
Ike’s surge-saturated soil was left unusually dry by last year’s drought. High levels of salt in the soil makes it hard for the trees to absorb fresh water, which causes them to drop leaves and eventually die.
Although city crews started watering the trees in the Broadway medians about a month after the storm, the rest of the trees on public property were left to fend for themselves.
Canopy Is Key
Merritt will lead a team of foresters and volunteer Master Gardeners to take a sampling of trees between 83rd Street and the island’s far East End.
They’ll be assessing each tree’s crown — the spread of its branches — for signs of life, Merritt said.
If less than 50 percent of the canopy is covered in leaves, the tree is unlikely to recover, he said.
The teams also will look at structural damage to the trunk and make note of any trees that are leaning, he said.
Although the forest service will send its recommendation to the city quickly, how soon the trees are removed will depend on funding, Merritt said.
Only 40 Percent
The forest service assessment will not cover the Broadway oaks because the road is under Texas Department of Transportation jurisdiction.
District Vegetation Manager Walter Hambrick is giving those trees, considered a part of the road’s historic significance, more time to recover.
Although they know some of the trees are dead, department arborists aren’t willing to guess how many will come back, Hambrick said.
The city has spent $31,452 during the last six months applying gypsum and compost to the trees and watering each one every three weeks.
But Roger Johnson, the city’s parks superintendent, estimates only 40 percent of the trees have leafed out or put on any buds.
Because the esplanade is historic, the Texas Historical Commission wants every tree that’s removed replaced with a new one, something that will be possible only as funding allows, Hambrick said.
The transportation agency likely will decide which trees to remove in May, he said.
