Trees reel from freeze
Galveston’s iconic palms struggling to survive after cold snap
GALVESTON — Galveston’s majestic palm trees could be another casualty of Texas’ four-day freeze last month.
The cold snap that left millions of Texans without power and caused burst pipes across the state has also had a pronounced effect on local vegetation. Weeks after the freeze, with the winter weather now normalizing to mild temperatures for the region, many trees in Galveston remain in a torpid state — with brown leaves, broken branches and a general hangdog appearance.
“Your queen palms, Japanese blueberry trees, citrus trees, olive trees — there’s probably a 90 percent chance that those are just really not going to come back,” said Orvis Himebaugh, owner of Tree Worxx, a company that specializes in tree servicing in Galveston County and the Houston area.
Galveston’s iconic palms, synonymous with the island’s laid-back ethos, bore the brunt of the impact from the harsh weather. The lofty trees — there are more than 20 spe
cies of palms on Galveston Island — are surprisingly resilient, able to withstand the region’s volatile climate from hurricanes and tropical storms to the occasional frost. But the sustained subfreezing temperatures and vicious winds in February proved too severe for the trees to overcome.
Himebaugh said the palms on the island’s West End were hit particularly hard by the freeze, as there are fewer buildings on that part of Galveston to shield the trees from being pummeled by arctic winds. He added it will take up to two months to determine whether any of the damaged trees will perk up.
In Houston, where palm trees are also flagging from the spate of cold weather, the official prognosis is that it’s too soon to tell which will survive. Jeremy Burkes, division manager of urban forestry for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said it could take anywhere from six months to a year for trees to make a full recovery.
“It (a palm tree) is completely brown, there’s a good chance that it may not make it,” Burkes said. “But if there’s any, any sign of green, then we’re hopeful that the tree is going to thrive and come back.”
While most of the palm trees on Galveston are maintained privately, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department services many of the palms that line Broadway, the island’s main thoroughfare. A city spokeswoman said most of those trees are “in shock” right now from the freeze but often will rebound after a few months of warmer weather.
Priscilla Files, executive director of the Galveston Island Tree Conservancy, said some of the Broadway palms “look good and some don’t look good.” She theorized that the four-day freeze had smaller “microclimates” of harsher conditions that battered some island palms worse than others.
“It almost seems like there were (wind) currents that came through the air that were colder than others,” Files, an arborist, said. “Some older (palm tree) populations were damaged really badly, and then others that aren’t too far from them were looking OK.”
The ability of palm trees to survive harsh winters is largely dependent on the species, Files said. Texas sabal palms, which can grow up to 50 feet tall, are sturdier and usually bounce back from occasional cold snaps. But the more popular queen palms struggle to survive when temperatures drop below 20 degrees.
Oleanders, another popular tree in Galveston — the island was nicknamed “The Oleander City” for its plethora of trees lining city streets, parks and yards — have also been decimated by the cold. The International Oleander Society, a local nonprofit that works to preserve the Oleander population in Galveston, has been assessing its downtown garden. The prognosis for these trees is bleak.
“It’s devastating,” said Betsy Thomas, secretary for the Oleander Society. “We have 15- to 20foot oleanders, that we may have to cut to the ground or eight inches above the ground.”
Still, Thomas is hopeful. For oleanders — a woody, ornamental tree with blossoms that range in color from pink to yellow — the best course of action for resuscitation is simply to water constantly and wait them out. The Oleander Society is soldiering on with its Oleander Festival planned for April 24.
“Just because they’re damaged doesn’t mean we won’t celebrate them,” Thomas said.
In the meantime, Himebaugh and his team are doing what they can to help the palm trees recover. In addition to trimming damaged or dead limbs and leaves, they are applying a liquid, nitrogen-free fertilizer to the trees’ root systems, trying to facilitate carbon and oxygen growth. They are also spraying the crowns of the trees with copper fungicide to prevent disease.
“We’re doing a compost roots soak to help them through the stress they experienced,” Himebaugh said.
Bob Hodges, who owns Buccaneer Tree Services in Galveston, recommends trimming palm trees, particularly at the top around the crown, to relieve pressure from the overabundance of water the trees absorbed from thawed ice.
“When (the palm trees) froze, the only water it got in it is from the ice that melted and got in there,” Hodges said. “And then when it started melting, the trees got overloaded with water.”
But even now, Himebaugh can see there are many palm trees that won’t make it.
“If the branches are all completely broken at the top, especially on the queen palms, that means they’re pretty much not going to come back.”