North Texas Drought Article

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Drought taking its toll
Plants, home foundations, water supplies among victims

11:13 PM CST on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
By ROY APPLETON and MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News

JUAN GARCIA/DMN
A freshwater clam lies dead on the parched floor of Lake Lavon in Collin County. North Texas skies last weekend delivered one welcome round of refreshment to the parched land. But even with those showers and the prospect of more rain this week, the lingering drought raises all sorts of questions.

When will enough rainfall break a dry spell now 10 months in the works? What will happen to water supplies and agriculture?

And what about urban landscapes and home foundations? What's to come with those pesty bugs and blooming wildflowers?

Drought conditions from the Dallas area into southeastern Oklahoma and Arkansas remain the nation's most severe, according to the latest federal drought monitoring report.

The National Weather Service last month said North Texas needed 20 to 25 inches of precipitation in six months to regain normal soil moisture – some to replace last year's 15-inch shortfall, the rest to make this a typical winter and spring.

But forecasters say the continuing absence of the rain-triggering tropical jet stream could keep much of Texas and the southwestern U.S. abnormally dry and warm at least through March and possibly into summer.

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If the state's usually abundant spring rains don't come – normally almost 15 inches from March to June – "we're going to be in a world of hurt," says George Bomar, a meteorologist and Texas weather expert.

For homeowners, a persistent drought could get costly. For fleas, grasshoppers and mosquitoes this year, the news could be good and bad.

In North Texas, dropping lake levels are triggering water restrictions earlier than usual. The North Texas Municipal Water District, for example, has asked the 61 cities it serves to reduce water consumption by 2 percent. For now.

Dwindling supplies won't affect charges to the district's customer cities until new sources of water are needed, said David Stephens, district deputy director.

Yet if the drought persists, rationing could be imposed. And officials in Plano, Frisco, Richardson and other cities are considering extra fees to discourage excessive water use, Mr. Stephens said.

"It very likely could happen," he said.

Groundwater is relatively slow to respond to drought, and the dry spell hasn't notably affected water systems dependent on wells, state officials and area drillers say.

But farmers have seen crops wither if they emerged at all. Ranchers have been culling and struggling to feed their herds. And some have been contacting Alan Strittmatter, a driller in Denton County, about digging wells or reviving old ones to support pastures and livestock.

"We have a lot of stock tanks that are bone dry," he said.



JUAN GARCIA/DMN
Tires that were once under several feet of water are now exposed at Lake Lavon.
Around the house

As water restrictions come into play, the drought's impact on lawns, shrubs and trees – all now dormant – remains unclear.

"We're really not going to know until springtime hits" and the growing season begins, said Matt Grubisich, a Dallas-based arborist for the Texas Forest Service.

"The stress is surely there. You'll probably be seeing it for years to come," said Courtney Blevins, a Fort Worth-based Forest Service arborist. "What kills trees is a combination of stress," drought being one cause, he said.

Rural areas and public parks without irrigation systems are likely to suffer more than urban home landscapes, specialists say. Trees such as live oaks, cedar elms and post oaks will be more drought tolerant than cottonwoods, black willows, ash and others that generally grow along creeks and other relatively wet environments, Mr. Blevins said.

"A lot of people think that because plants are dormant or look locked in time they can just walk away," said Landry Lockett, Collin County horticulturist with Texas A&M's Texas Cooperative Extension program.

But he and other specialists say homeowners can protect their landscapes or at least prevent further damage by keeping plant roots moist, watering deeply and slowly as needed.

"That's moist. Not wet and not dry," said Dale Groom, Dallas County extension horticulturist. And, he adds, "you've got to keep checking" the soil.

With trees, said Mr. Blevins, "the worst thing you can do is over-water."

The drought may take out some vegetation, but Jon Pinkus, owner of North Haven Gardens in Dallas, said he isn't anticipating a rush on replacement trees and shrubs. Most homeowners probably wouldn't promptly rebuild their landscapes, particularly if the drought persists, he said. "Uncertainty makes people hold back."

Drying soils are clearly damaging home foundations across North Texas.

"I'm seeing a whole lot more problems than is typical for this time of year – or summer or fall," said Dan Hargrave, president of the Foundation Repair Association's North Texas chapter.

Foundations, particularly those riding on clay soils, tend to settle when the ground dries out and rise when it becomes wet and swells. Maintaining soil moisture around a home is crucial for preventing this damaging shift, said Mr. Hargrave, owner of Hargrave Custom Foundation Repair in Wylie.

For foundations left to nature's ways, the drought, coming after a rainy 2004, caused an unusually wide range of motion. And when the soil becomes saturated again, foundations will rise, potentially causing more problems, he said.

"If you haven't been [watering] already, you're probably not going to achieve much success," Mr. Hargrave said. But applying water now "can prevent problems from getting worse."

Impact on insects

A lasting dry spell would have a mixed impact on insects, said Dr. Mike Merchant, an urban entomologist with the Cooperative Extension program.

It should be an off year for fleas, which need soil moisture to reproduce, but an active season for ticks, he said. Grasshopper populations explode when the soil where they lay their eggs remains dry. Dry conditions aid Culex mosquitoes, carriers of the West Nile virus, who lay eggs in stagnant water, although floodwater mosquitoes typically emerge along creeks with rising water and aren't as plentiful in droughts, Dr. Merchant said.

"There may be some silver lining with this drought and our insect pests," Dr. Merchant said. "But all bets are off once it rains."

The drought has hit wildflowers hard, and plant scientists predict the usual splashes of roadside color will be toned way down.

"It won't be a peak year for wildflowers by any stretch and probably won't even be an average year," said Dr. Wayne Mackay, a horticulturist at Texas A&M's agricultural experiment station in North Dallas.

Although bluebonnets, black-eyed Susans, Indian paintbrushes and other wildflowers bloom in spring, their seeds germinate in autumn. Then they spend the winter building their root systems.

But some seeds struggled to germinate last year. Those that did have died for lack of water. And those that survived haven't developed fully, Dr. Mackay said.

Late winter rains would help, he said, but can't replace what's already gone. "It'll save the ones that are still alive. The issue is how many made it. A lot haven't."

No doubt drought remains the major weather concern in the run-up to spring, but not the only one. Warm, sunny afternoons that pushed temperatures above the seasonal average every day since Dec. 20 – with just three days in January even close to normal – pose problems all their own.

Not so peachy

Dale Ham, who grows peaches on 75 acres near Terrell, said his trees need about 900 "chill hours" during the winter to produce a good crop the following summer.

"We've only had 460-470 hours between 32 and 45 degrees this winter," Mr. Ham said.

So for just the third time in 28 years, he'll have to spray his trees with Dormex, a chemical "chiller."

"We're not real sure that'll be enough," he said. "It's never been this warm in winter."

And even if the Dormex works, he'll still have to contend with the drought, which left two of his four ponds dry and the others with water enough for just a few weeks of irrigation.

His other worry is with the warmth. Mr. Ham frets that his trees will begin to bud and flower far earlier than usual, early enough that there's still a real chance for a hard freeze.

"But if they're in flower and it gets below 32 degrees, we'll have a lot of damage," he said.

Dallas-area homeowners have much less at stake from a late freeze, but a steep drop in temperatures remains a threat.

The showy ornamental pear trees that signal the start of spring with mounds of tiny white flowers are already beginning to bud in many neighborhoods. Other trees and shrubs are also rousing from too-brief dormancies. A strong freeze now could push back their normal development by a month or more, said Dr. Cynthia McKenney, urban horticulturist with the Cooperative Extension program.

"Shrubs and trees that lose their buds in a freeze will turn around and redevelop them," she said.

"They'll leaf out late, but they will come back."

E-mail rappleton@dallasnews.com and myoung@dallasnews.com

Drought tips

Tree, landscape and foundation professionals say it is important to keep the roots of yard vegetation and the soil around homes moist, particularly during droughts. Experts offer these suggestions but say the amount of watering varies depending on soil type, land slope, vegetation and other factors.

Routinely check the soil. Water deeply as needed to maintain moisture while avoiding over-watering and runoff.

Apply 1 to 1 ½ inches of water per week to lawns throughout the growing season, 1 inch every two weeks during dormancy.

Water new trees (less than 2 years old) every seven to 10 days during a drought or throughout the regular growing season, every three to four weeks during normal dormancy.

Water established trees monthly until normal rainfall returns; otherwise, normal lawn watering should be sufficient.

Keep foundation shrubs watered. Apply water to soil 1 foot to 18 inches from the foundation. Make sure soil is moist evenly around the foundation.

Retain mulch around plantings and along foundations to retain moisture and cool the soil.

Don't prune crape myrtles, roses and other flowering shrubs during the drought.

Questions? Call 214-904-3053 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or 972-548-4232 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

SOURCES: Texas Cooperative Extension agents; Texas Forest Service arborists