Taking another look

 

Sunrise this morning

While watering trees today, I got to wondering about how last winter's record snowfall and cold had truly left everything, not how it looked this spring and summer, or what I imagined it should look like at this time. So I walked around and assessed everything objectively, not just seeing all the damage, like I normally tend to do. It wasn't as bad as I had expected. For one thing, no trees had died. The heavy snow had destroyed a lot of limbs, but the long term "uglification" was all due to bears. The three trees (one pinon & two junipers) missing tops are due to bears. (Next month is bear month. Lots of acorns. Yikes!)

The trees that tolerated the cold best are the oaks, Velvet Ash, pinyons, Arizona Cypresses, Chisos Rosewoods, madrones, and Alligator Junipers. That's a lot. All those are evergreens, except for the Velvet Ash and Chinkapin Oaks. The Huisache trees all froze back, but all but one have leafed out all the way to the top, although sparsely. I knew that Huisache were iffy when I planted them, so to be expected. Can't complain. Native bushes that I didn't plant, like sumac etc. were all fine. I think the soapberries in the arroyo were hurt more by lack of water than by the cold.

Besides the Huisache, another tree froze back. That's a volunteer mulberry tree. But the growth at the bottom half is lush and the dead top makes nice perches for birds. Mulberry trees grow fast, so it'll be fine next year. Normally, I would have pruned the bottom new growth off, but considering the stress the tree was in, I left it. Had I pruned it off, perhaps the top would look better. Don't know. Not sure whether I'll prune it this winter or not.

Volunteer mulbery tree

One other tree that died back is one of the few trees that were along the arroyo at the oasis before I began planting anything. So for starters, it's old. It's a Netleaf Hackberry. And it was way smaller before the dams were built. Here's a reminder of what it originally looked like after we built the first dam, but before the trees I planted had started to grow. Beside that hackberry tree were a couple of other trees, a juniper, sumac, persimmon, etc. creating a little thicket. I think this photo was taken in 1997. (That dead tree is something I planted next to our first tank so the birds would have something to perch on.)

I've lost other hackberry trees that grow along the arroyo in wet years, and then die in dry years. Last year was record drought so I think that's why it died back. But because the arroyo fills with runoff for a week after a monsoonal rain because of the dam, it didn't totally die. My opinion. Here it is today.

Old Netleaf Hackberry

I'm glad I re-evaluated the situation. I had been just noticing the damage and not noticing the trees that are doing fine, which are the majority, and especially the most important ones. It's like when you have a sick child you barely notice the well ones. All my care was focused on the trees that were in trouble

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The soapberry thicket in the arroyo is spindly, but alive. Nothing is real lush. The pecan tree has hardly any leaves on it. Not sure if that's due to the cold or the drought. 

Pecan tree

The cottonwood tree has very few leaves on it, but those it does have are healthy. I'm not giving up on any trees at this time. The cherry tree is another that has few leaves, but is alive. I realize that trees that aren't suitable for the oasis will eventually die, and that's OK. As long as I get my tanks full once a year, there'll be plenty of vegetation for the birds.

We have a chance for rain later in the week and if this winter isn't horrifically frigid, the oasis could look great next year. Especially, if my tanks fill up this late in the year. I'm dreaming, of course.

Dickcissel

Bell's Vireo