歪歪漫画

PARK RAPIDS 鈥� Taking a late-August stroll outside, there may be an acorn crunch under the shoes and a few, yellow leaves on the ground. But it's not necessarily a fall thing 鈥� according to experts, it's a drought thing.

鈥淭rees are definitely stressed,鈥� said Steph Pazdernik, who is the city forester in the Park Rapids parks department. She said drought conditions during the past three years have negatively impacted trees in the area.

鈥淚n some cases, burr oak trees have aborted their acorns before they had a chance to mature," said Pazdernik, adding that the trees quit growing and go dormant, dropping their acorns and leaves early.

Lorie Skarpness / Enterprise

"Larger trees will drop their seeds and little leaves first, then their bigger leaves and then go dormant. It was worse last year and this year with the severe drought."

Lorie Skarpness / Enterprise

Pazdernik said the tiny acorns can still provide a source of food for squirrels and other animals, but they will need to eat more of them. 鈥淪quirrels only eat them when they dry up and turn brown,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey will hide them now and eat them later.鈥�

Like many aspects of life, tough times are toughest on the young, and that includes trees.

鈥淚f you have a young tree, it takes a couple of years for it to get established,鈥� Pazdernik said, adding that people should water trees for the first five years. "You can water them until the ground starts freezing and their fiber roots will still take the moisture in," she said. "The best time to plant a tree is early spring or later fall. It鈥檚 cooler and they can hold more moisture in. The first two years are the most important ones. After that nature takes over. And hopefully we'll get some good rains this fall.鈥�

Pazdernik said mulch around the tree helps hold moisture as long as the mulch is placed a distance from the tree.

鈥淒o not mulch up to the tree as mulch can rot out a tree,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want that mulch touching the tree.鈥�

If watering with a hose, watering in the early morning and at night is best so water can soak in rather than evaporating in the heat of the day.

The city of Park Rapids uses gator bags that hold up to 5 gallons of water on some of their young trees for the first two years, such as those at Lindquist Park that are part of the

鈥淎 truck with a water tank and a hose is used to fill the gator bag and the water slowly seeps into the ground,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat way it goes directly into the root system. You can buy those gator bags for trees around your home, too.鈥�

Park Rapids and much of central Minnesota remain in a severe drought and will likely stay there for a while, even with rain chances predicted to increase by mid September.
Tyler Thomas is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks. He said during the past 90 days, the Park Rapids area has only seen 6 to 8 inches of rain total.

Image courtesy of droughtmonitor.unl.edu

鈥淭he average for that period is closer to 10 inches, so we鈥檙e running two to four inches below normal,鈥� said Thomas, who said this summer has been downhill almost the whole time with not getting enough rain. "Even if we could get 4 inches of rain tomorrow, we鈥檇 still be in drought because not all of it would be soaked into the ground. Some of it would run off, and some would continue through the ground into the aquifer. 鈥�

Thomas said during the summer, rainfall rates can vary quite a bit within a region as a thunderstorm may hit one area with a couple of inches of rain and completely miss another area.
鈥淗opefully we can get some good rains to quell the concerns about wildfires, too, because that鈥檚 definitely been on our minds with what is happening in Canada,鈥� he said, adding that the North American Drought Monitor shows most of the Canadian prairies are in severe drought, with exceptional drought near the Canadian Rockies. "Up until they get snow to put those fires out, it looks like whenever we get those north or northwest winds, there will be chances for that smoke to reach our area.鈥�

Thomas said a ridging pattern over the western and central U.S. has caused heat domes to build over the northern plains and pushed precipitation east and north of this area during much of the summer.

As far as the extended outlook goes, he said the national weather service is forecasting a better chance of lower than average precipitation for the next two weeks.

鈥淎s we look at the long term through mid to late September, we are trending more towards normal precipitation or maybe even above normal,鈥� he said.