A Halloween tree killer - arctic air that caused killed trees in the Great Plains towns - includes related articles on Akron, CO and suggested trees for planting - Urban Forests

American Forests, Jan-Feb, 1993 by Ron Gosnell

It has taken a year for the real impact to sink in--Great Plains towns with few live trees, no shade, nothing to break the wind or lift the spirit.

The fall of 1991 had been warm and mild in Colorado and neighboring states. But on October 27, a deadly mass of arctic air began to descend from Canada onto the high plains. Record cold temperatures were felt for days; the effects will be felt for decades.

The abrupt change in temperature and the cold's severity combined to create a double-whammy, now known as the Halloween Freeze. Already stressed from an extended drought and not yet hardened for winter, thousands and thousands of trees succumbed to the hard freeze. Especially hard-hit were fast-growing Siberian elms. Many trees were so severely damaged that although a few branches cling to life even today, there is no alternative but removing them.

Some small towns lost 70 percent of their trees, mostly Siberian elms planted 50 to 75 years ago. Farmers and ranchers lost entire windbreaks planted by their parents and grandparents.

The impact on energy use will be tremendous; trees that had helped cut cooling and heating bills are now gone. And farmers fear cropland topsoil will be lost from the windbreak-less land.

The first sign of trouble didn't appear until the spring of 1992, when many trees did not leaf out; since then, dead trees have been on everyone's mind. How people are dealing with this and their plans for the future are just now unfolding.

"Words can hardly express it, we are so upset," says Janine Bjoklun, a citizen tree-board member in Haxtun, Colorado. Haxtun residents have always been proud of their town, a lushly treed oasis in a sea of prairie. Now, with so many big old trees removed, the town looks vacant.

In Holyoke, a farming community of about 2,000 that lies 30 miles west of the Nebraska border, Mayor Frank Hubp describes how his town is helping citizens deal with the disaster. "Holyoke put out bid requests for tree removals," he says. "As a result, residents can have their dead trees removed under our contract for much less money than if homeowners contracted individually." Savings may amount to $100 to $200 per tree.

As she walks to and from work each day, Town Clerk Penny Dockins surveys the damage and watches dead trees being taken down. "I don't know which is worse to see--stumps or dead trees," she says. "All around town, all you see are stumps. We'd like to liven up our city (with trees) again. Holyoke is noted for its trees."

A community-wide effort is underway in many eastern Colorado towns like Holyoke. People are pitching in to help neighbors while the towns' employees and equipment help haul logs and dead branches to landfills.

The sheer magnitude of the problem has prompted Colorado's state forester, Jim Hubbard, to initiate a special effort to assist the towns. The State Forest Service is encouraging each town to develop its own plan to remove dead trees, properly dispose of the wood, and replace the lost trees with a variety of new ones. With a supplemental budget request to the Colorado state legislature, and anticipated support from the governor, the Service hopes to pass some money on to the towns that need it most.

One problem worrying forestry officials is public safety. If the freeze-killed trees are not removed soon, they will lose branches in the wind. With so many dead trees in every town, there's an increased chance of someone being hurt or even killed by a falling branch.

And, so many dead or dying elms mean new breeding sites for the Lesser European elm bark beetle. The tiny bark beetle, which needs dead elm trees to raise a brood, is the usual culprit for spreading Dutch elm disease (DED).

With so many new dead-tree breeding sites, entomologists fear an escalated beetle population will mean a higher incidence of DED. For years, Colorado has successfully kept the disease in check by keeping live elms trimmed of dead branches and quickly removing and disposing of dead ones. Now, the "sanitation" task is overwhelming.

It may not be the dead elms that pose the greatest risk of beetle infestation. According to Dave Leatherman of the Colorado State Forest Service, many of the Siberian elms killed outright by the freeze are already shedding their bark, rendering them unsuitable for the beetles. "However, the elms that lived, but now are dying, represent the greatest threat for a bigger elm bark beetle population and more Dutch elm disease," he says. "That's because bark on dying trees is still tightly attached and makes excellent brood wood."

It appears the situation will only get worse before it gets better. Trees that initially leafed out and seemed to have survived the freeze were showing shriveled leaves and more dead branches by midsummer. And the problem is not limited to eastern Colorado. The Halloween freeze swept across western Nebraska and Kansas and down into Oklahoma, killing trees everywhere in its path.

Nebraska newspapers report 250,000 trees killed on public lands, and another 250,000 on private property, most of it in the panhandle. Oklahoma was also hard-hit. "Our worst week of winter came the first week of November," says Ken Crawford, director of Oklahoma's Climate Survey.