Tree Dieback a Reviver

We've had a particularly dry few years, and the street trees - mainly mature tall trees of many species - are beginning to show the effects.

While householders generally have ensured the survival of trees within their property boundaries in spite of the water restrictions, the street trees have been left to their own devices.

And perhaps 20% have faltered.

Increasingly, as the drought stretches into years, they are succumbing. Brown and dead, they are a pitiful sight. And the neighborhood is much worse off for their passing.

Every here and there, however, some home-owners are taking a stand. It seems to particularly apply to folk who live near open spaces, where there is open land between them and the road.

A pleasing number have begun their own replanting programs. Little clusters of trees are appeearing, well-staked, mulched and with wetting agent applied.

Clustered, they are better suited to economic use of grey-water. Once established, the thickets may be expanded.

And hopefully, somewhere along the way, the rains will come again, and they will thrive.

These thoughtful actions now will then do us proud.