West of Fredricksburg for 100 miles to the edge of the forest the desert has arrived. Fully half of the trees in that region are defoliated from drought (only a small amount is from oak wilt)
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La Politica | Texas Will Be The Hub For Latino Growth In Next Decade By Sara Ines Calderon (Dec. 27, 2011) – A new analysis from Real Clear Politics estimates that Texas will gain three new congressional seats after the 2020 Census. And attorney Michael Li noted in a blog post on the Burnt Orange Report:The Census Bureau has not yet released demographic or geographic information on its 2011 population growth estimates – that’ll come next year. But if recent trends hold up, about 2/3 of that growth will be Hispanic.Forbes | More Proof That The American For-Profit Insurance Model is Doomed By Rick Ungar (Dec. 28, 2011) – Recently, I published a piece arguing that the medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements of Obamacare would spell the end of the private, for-profit health insurance payer system in the United States and clear the way for universal, single-payer coverage provided by the federal government.
The MLR requires that insurance companies selling to small groups and individuals spend 80 percent of premium dollars received on actual health care (not administrative costs or profits) and 85 percent for large group policies.. . . a report issued this week by, of all places, the conservative Galen Institute, reveals that you can’t judge the long-term viability of an industry by its current share price. Indeed, the results of the Galen study highlight that the exodus of insurance companies from the health insurance business may be happening far more quickly than I imagined.
EarthSky/Jay Janner/AAStatesman
The Rag Blog | By Bruce Melton Drought and Wildfire Welcome To Climate Change In Texas Austin, TX (Dec. 29, 2011) – If this is not climate change, then this is exactly what climate change will be in as little as a decade. What has been happening in Texas, with these unprecedented (in time frames that matter) droughts and wildfires, is exactly what the climate scientists have been warning us about for over 20 years.We have been building up to this point since about the turn of the century, and now ecosystems have tipped over the edge. Climate feedbacks have kicked in hard.
The Texas Forest Services tells us that a half billion trees have died. Many more will die in the next five to 10 years from disease and insect infestation allowed by the damage that has already been done. These are the trees that have died in the drought, not the fires.
11 comments:
The tree die off is a mixed blessing. Many of those trees wilted by the drought are dreaded water and rain sucking cedars. On balance in the short term this is good because it allows more rain to penetrate the soil into aquifers. Long term, more drought and less precipitation is surely a scary scenario no matter which way one looks at it.
Only a fool would believe that dying trees are a good thing. In fact most of the trees that died were Red Oaks and most that look dead are only dormant.
Very few cedars have died and that is a good thing since they reduce erosion on slopes. Cedars are Texas natives and beneficial! Wait until spring to make such unfounded comments.
The water hippies of Wimberley would trade every tree in the County for a flowing Jacob's Well. What an ignorant obsession!
Anonymous said "Only a fool..."
You be de fool.
Get out of the county and take a drive from Junction to Sheffield on I-10. Look north. Look south. Those hills full of red trees? Are they "red oaks" (more precisely "Spanish Oaks")?
No, they are junipers (cedars). Entire hillsides and slopes are dead. Not dormant.
And around here, some Spanish Oaks are dead from the drought. Spring will tell. Watch that group of Spanish Oaks NW of the Jacobs Well Rd/FM 2325 junction. Some will bud out, some won't.
And more trees will die this year from last year's drought (stress).
Marble Falls is ringed by dead cedars. From Highway 281, entering Marble Falls from the south, look east. Look at the dead cedars east on FM 2147, too.
When entering Marble Falls on FM 1431 from the east, look at the dead (red) cedars. Go west on FM 1431 and look at the dead cedars. Many more than "very few cedars" have died.
Why is the fact that Hispanics will comprise the majority of Texas' population growth in the coming years "sobering news"?
Regarding the trees...so what?
the area is reverting to prairie land where is was once before. This isn't "sad", it just is. No doubt some idiots will hop on the "sustainability" wagon and justify all sorts of encroachments on individuals under the pretext of trying to reverse nature and time.
A single payer health care system is only a matter of time.
It may take another duopoly Republican-DINO Party round of recession creating national economics to make more and more people poorer for the nation as a whole to realize that a single payer health care system is the minimun economic safety net the average American should get for their lower and lower wages, reduced benefits, and increased income disparity.
Climategate is mere Fools Folly.
This earth's climate has always changed and always will. This area has been repeatedly covered by an ocean. As every geologist can verify even here in Wimberley at the end of the ice ages there was nothing but lichens and tundra moss.
During the Civil War, Texas was plagued with the severe multi year drought that heavily influenced the outcome of the conflict.
" Texas it is continual drought punctuated by periodic flooding."
www.mshollis.com
To M.S. Hollis,
I don't think anyone disagrees that there have been cycles of droughts and floods in the past -- stretching 'way back in time. The point is that there are billions more people now than there were in prehistory, and yet the amount of
water on the earth has not changed.
How do we here in Hays County plan to have enough water for all our residents as time goes by?
Alot of the cedars, especially young ones, died from spider mites last spring and summer.
Yes, a lot of dead red oaks, at least they look dead. Hope they are just hunkering down, but I know I have lost large red oak limbs during the drought. That was before I started watering my trees.
Yes, I am an environmentalist and I water my trees.
The Water Hippies?
My goodness, are you really serious?
What is wrong with having a healthy creek run through Wimberley?
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