Master Gardeners and Extension Service offer black walnuts to landowners

The Gonzales Master Gardeners and Texas AgriLife Extension are pleased to offer local landowners free black walnut trees again this year. These trees were planted last fall by third graders from the Gonzales Independent School District.

The Texas Forestry Service estimated that by the end of 2012 as many as 500 million forest trees and as many as 56 million urban trees across Texas had succumbed to drought. Estimates included that Gonzales County lost 10% of its trees in the 2011 drought event alone. Even after the worst drought in Texas history seemed to have ended, trees in the County continued to succumb to drought stresses. Experts explain that stress on trees is cumulative over the life of a tree and so the stress a tree experiences in an event like drought can greatly shorten the useful life of the tree — even when it seems to have recovered from the immediate impact. Droughts in Texas seem to run in 30 year cycles and it appears that this drought cycle is now running its course and Gonzales residents can expect improving conditions over time. The passing of the drought cycle does not mean that every year will now be wet or optimum but it should be wetter — on average.

The turning of the drought cycle makes now the right time to begin rebuilding the canopy of shade given by trees. The most desirable trees are often the slowest growing and so getting them started now will give them the best chance to get firmly established and to mature over the next weather cycle. The trees you choose now will have a major long term impact on the quality of your shade canopy.

The tree population seen today in Gonzales County is dominated by red oaks, cedar elms and hickory. These are fast growing trees that take advantage of prolific seed production to dominate the untended forests. But they are also short lived trees that are susceptible to hypoxylon canker, a fungal disease that commonly attacks drought stressed trees. The proliferation of these trees is the result of not only drought but the cumulative effect of clearing and farming that has taken place since Gonzales was settled in the early 1800s.

Diversifying the tree canopy in the county to include a wider variety of native trees in more natural proportions can do a great deal to strengthen the tree canopy before the next drought cycle begins. Native and adapted trees can be reintroduced by careful and persistent planting. Once dominant in Gonzales and surrounding counties, black walnut trees are large, rugged trees usually 50 to 75 feet tall. Some trees have been recorded to reach 150 feet in height. The Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) produces a nut and highly valued, dense dark wood. Today, however, this tree is “one of the scarcest and most coveted native hardwoods” according to the Ladybird Wildflower Center database.

The abundance of flowing creeks and rivers made Gonzales County an ideal location for the black walnut. In the mid-1800s, Gonzales County was about one-third open prairie and two-thirds timber. Well known for its black walnuts, Gonzales was home to a number of enterprising cabinet makers who found the beautiful dark wood ideal for their skilled carpentry. The furniture they produced was greatly sought after. Many historic homes in Gonzales still have furniture and magnificent paneling and staircases made by local furniture makers like legendary Augustus Kleine. In addition, commercial timber buyers were drawn to Gonzales’s black walnut wood. By 1881, The Gonzales Inquirer reported that an estimated three-fourths of the black walnut had been used up in the preceding 10 years. In 1882, a single Ohio firm purchased one million feet of walnut timber from trees just between Gonzales and Belmont. In time, the forests were depleted. The Inquirer lamented that “A good walnut tree requires 100 years to grow to a proper size.” With no reforestation, the black walnut tree became a rarity.

Each year, the Gonzales Master Gardeners partner with the third graders of the Gonzales Independent School District to offer the students an opportunity to learn more about natural resource conservation and to help restore a more balanced tree population. Each third grader plants a black walnut seed and the Master Gardeners tend their seedlings until the following fall. The vast majority of land in Texas is in private hands and Texas landowners and residents have always taken a keen interest in protecting the land and their heritage. Passing these values on to the next generation is part of ensuring Texas’s future.

Again this year, the third graders (who are now fourth graders), the Gonzales Master Gardeners and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension are pleased to offer about 65 black walnut trees free of charge to interested landowners in Gonzales County for planting throughout the county. The ideal location will be a rural setting with deep soil and good runoff to provide water. Interested landowners can contact the Gonzales County Office of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension at (830) 672-8531 to reserve from 1 to 4 of the children’s trees. Reserved trees will be available for pick-up on Tuesday, October 31 at 2 p.m. at the Master Gardener building named PACE (Plantatarium: A Center for Exploration), 623 N. Fair Street, Gonzales, Texas.

For more information on trees suitable to this area, visit the Gonzales Master Gardeners website at gonzalesmastergardeners.org under Trees We Like.