Ранняя осень в Альбукерке: засуха и жара вынуждают деревья сбрасывать листву

Why do some parts of Albuquerque look like fall and why should we care? ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The heat is saying summer, but the trees are saying fall in some parts of Albuquerque. But it’s not time to break out the pumpkin spice just yet. The dog days of summer are sticking around, and the trees are changing early because they’re under stress from the high temperatures and drought. It’s not just this year, though. Arborists said it’s after a couple of years of these conditions. “It’s painful. Every single day, I have 20 customers calling me and saying, ‘My tree is dropping leaves, my tree is not producing good fruit,'” Arborist Camille Romero Melton said. Romero Melton is an arborist with Baca’s Trees, a local tree service company. But it’s not necessarily the company she wants to put in the spotlight right now. “We’re really, really concerned about our canopy. Our canopy here is just dying, all over,” she said. What can help? The obvious answer: They need more water. But many times, Romero Melton said people aren’t using the proper irrigation system. “So often people have these tiny little drip emitters [on] a tree that’s 30 feet tall [it] has three emitters that put out two gallons of water an hour. It would have to run continuously for the rest of its life in order to get any water at all. And in fact, they’re so close to the trunk that they’re 100% wasted water,” Romero Melton said. She said at that point, you might as well turn off the irrigation system and just use your hose. “You don’t water trees three times a week. They prefer to get water once a week, but they want a good soaking. They don’t want a little snack,” she said. The City of Albuquerque’s Forester, Athena Beshur, has also noticed the lack of green in the metro. But she added you shouldn’t just be looking at the tree itself, but its surroundings too, to help conserve water. “Soil building through compost and water retention methods. Mulch is a great method where we can put wood chips on top or underneath the gravel for esthetics, and those things help build the soil. They also hold moisture longer in the soil, and they regulate temperature,” said Beshur. Is using more water worth it? Albuquerque is under drought restrictions for water use, meaning you can’t irrigate from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it at all. But in a dry state like ours, is it worth it? “We encourage people to give trees as much water as their trees need in order to flourish and thrive. One of the reasons for that is because trees, because of the shade they provide, help to reduce the urban heat island effect, and can reduce temperatures in the community, and therefore reduce overall water use,” Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority’s David Morris said. Morris explained as temps come down, the need to water other parts of your landscape or run your swamp cooler also goes down. You can also get money back, or a “tree-bate,” for that extra water use, up to $100. There are conditions. It has to be certain species of trees under the city’s Xeriscape guide. There are also rebates for xeriscaping. Not only do they benefit the future, they help reduce crime “You don’t plant a tree for you. You plant a tree for your kids. You plant the seed today, for the shade tomorrow,” Romero Melton said. It might be obvious why trees are important because of the oxygen they give off and the shade they provide, but both Romero Melton and Beshur said they can even reduce crime. “Without trees, we have more crime. Without trees, we have unhealthier people. Without trees, we have no shade, and it’s hotter than blazes not to have shade,” Romero Melton said. “There have been studies across the nation where neighborhoods that had trees and didn’t have trees had very dramatic different crime rates,” Beshur continued. “The one that had the trees, people stayed longer. They kept their jobs longer. They had a lot less crime, a lot less domestic violence, and a lot less shootings.”