Drought Results

The 2011 drought in the south was pretty devastating for farmers and ranchers throughout the Lone Star state. The final tally of agricultural loses in Texas alone amounted to around 10 billion dollars. It was really sad to see completely dried-up fields while driving through the state last year and to hear stories of livestock dying of dehydration right out in their pastures. With over 300 miles of Gulf coastline, I would think that the state would look more into seawater desalination. I don't claim to know a lot about the subject, but I do know that Texans are not eager to build desalination plants because they are quite costly - about 1 billion dollars each. Perhaps some young whipper-snapper college students will figure out how to lower the price of desalinating seawater so future droughts won't have such tragic results.

The lakes and rivers around our house in Houston are beginning to refill since there has been a normal amount of rain this spring. Last year's drought took a heavy toll on the trees and plants in our area, though. Many large, mature trees paid the ultimate price and had to be cut down. This is especially evident along our community's "Greenbelt" walking/biking trails. While strolling down the paths this week, I was dismayed to see that about one third of the trees have been chopped down. In addition, almost all of the beautiful fan palms that adorned the trails have turned brown and/or shriveled up. Hopefully this summer will bring average rainfall so we don't lose any more trees. Besides looking nice, the foliage provides much needed shade when the temperatures reach 100 degrees around here.

I was shocked to see how many trees were actually affected by the drought.

The poor Greenbelt trails look almost barren this year.