Miscommunication Leads To Dead Trees

A grove of trees planted near North Central Expressway and Woodall Rodgers Freeway to help make downtown "green" is anything but green these days.

Published August 21, 2008, By Dan X. McGraw

NEWS: THE CITY & STATE

A grove of trees planted near North Central Expressway and Woodall Rodgers Freeway to help make downtown "green" is anything but green these days.

About half the trees are dead because of summer heat, heavy winds and insufficient watering, said Steve Houser, a certified arborist. The rest are struggling.

"It's a graveyard out here," Houser said. "It's depressing for an arborist or a gardener, but it is also depressing to people driving and living along this area."

Four years ago, Texas Trees Foundation, a private, nonprofit group, planted more than 1,100 trees, mostly bald cypress, near the intersection of the two freeways. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the Texas Department of Transportation.

But a mixup between TxDOT and the foundation left the trees unwatered for months. According to a contract, the foundation is responsible for the maintenance of the trees -- including watering -- for five years, but the foundation thought TxDOT was handling it.

TxDOT and the foundation are talking about replacement trees.