Marble Falls gets LCRA donation of 50 trees to replace ones killed by drought
MARBLE FALLS — Fifty trees donated to the city will help replace 100 damaged by the drought that are being taken down, officials said.
The damaged trees — which are weakened or diseased after being starved of water — have become hazardous because limbs can crack and fall, or the tree itself can topple, officials said.
The donated trees are from the Lower Colorado River Authority, which has also given trees to Lampasas and Lexington, said Robert Moss, city Parks and Recreation director.
The director called LCRA with a request Sept. 17 and received word the next day of the donation, he said.
“We’ll put them where we need them,” Moss said Sept. 19. “But it doesn’t make sense to put them where there’s no water. We’ll distribute trees in empty spots where we can help them grow.”
Marble Falls will receive native Texas trees that include Mexican white oak, Mexican sycamores, Mexican plum, Burr oak and Texas red buds. LCRA will donate 10 of each type of tree, the director said.
LCRA also told Moss it will donate another 50 trees in 2013.
The native trees are adapted to the region and will grow better, arborists said.
The ongoing drought, which has gripped the region since October 2010, is what killed the estimated 100 trees, Moss said.
“Potentially, (the dead trees) could fall on people,” he said. “They’re hazardous, they’re ugly, they’re dead. It’s just a normal maintenance act.”
Moss said 100 dead or damaged trees is the most he’s seen since he’s been the director here for more than five years.
Employees aren’t cutting down healthy trees, he added.
“We’re trimming healthy trees because they get brittle,” he said. “Hazardous trees are the priority.”
The new trees are going to city-owned land where residents spend a lot of time including Johnson Park, Lakeside Park, Falls Creek Skate Park and playing fields.
In the past, LCRA has received grant money from the Apache Foundation’s Tree Grant Program to buy trees that are then donated.
Arborists say trees are extremely vital to maintaining an ecosystem.
Tree roots increase soil permeability, according to published reports, that help reduce surface runoff of water from storms, soil erosion and sedimentation in streams, lessen amounts of chemicals transported to streams, and reduce wind erosion of soil.
The leaves also produce oxygen.
In other news, a joint workshop is planned with the Parks and Recreation Department, City Council and the Economic Development Corp. where Baker-Aicklen & Associates will present the completed sports complex study the firm was hired to conduct in the spring.
The projected price tag of the sports complex is $36 million.
Moss said a date hasn’t been set.