MIDLAND, Texas — People in the City of Midland like their trees and they do a lot of work on maintaining them.
So when some Midland residents got a notice on their doors telling them that tree trimming was going to begin soon, many were confused about what it meant.
According to the notice, the City of Midland has hired a contractor to trim down trees and other vegetation that has grown into or over city streets. This is to clear the way for road maintenance equipment that will be working on the street during the Spring and Summer months.
The equipment requires up to fourteen feet of clearance.
In a statement released to NewsWest 9, the city said that "the City of Midland has recently notified some residents along Community Lane about upcoming tree trimming. Scheduled a month from the issued notices, this trimming is essential to facilitate a Mill and Inlay Project in the area later in 2024, which addresses road maintenance."
Meanwhile, residents are concerned about how this may impact the trees they have meticulously worked on over the past years, along with the spread of oak wilt.
According to Demian Gomez, a regional forest health coordinator with the Texas A&M Forest Services, this disease infects all oak trees and essentially chokes them of nutrients.
“It’s a fungus that invades the xylem, that’s the woody part of the tree, and it kind of clogs the whole system, like the water transfer system," Gomez said. "So the tree basically reacts to that fungus and just kind of shuts down the water and nutrient transfer system of the tree.”
While all oak trees will naturally catch it, the mortality rate differs among trees. Some oaks can be killed in a month or less while it takes more time for others.
Without proper maintenance, it can hop from tree to tree, speeding up the mortality process.
“So the way this moves is either through the root system, that’s what we call the below ground, or basically an above ground through these very tiny insects that move the spores from a red oak to a healthy oak or a wound on a healthy oak,” Gomez said.
While it can't be cured, it can be maintained through proper timing and with ample care, and it can also avoid any small critters looking for a meal.
“We want to avoid wounding or pruning the oak trees during certain times of the year, such as in February to June, that's a very high risk time of the year," Gomez said. "Because that’s when the full onset that I was mentioning typically form, which is when the spores will be available, but also that’s when the sap beetles are more active in our State of Texas. “
Midland residents have one month until the tree trimming will begin. While a professional service was hired to maintain efficiency, residents can trim their trees by themselves.
If they do this, they are urged to give the city notice by either calling Vault Mobile Storage, LLC at (432) 599-3025 or the City of Midland Transportation Department at (432) 685-7293. This will place you on the Do Not Trim List. Trees must be trimmed before street maintenance begins.