• Flood

    “When the water from the bayou began to come up through the floor and up past my feet and up to my waist, that was a scary, scary thing.”

    -Lex Frieden, wheelchair-bound Houston resident who waited five hours in rising floodwaters before help arrived

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  • Drought

    "This drought has been the most intense one-year drought in Texas since at least 1895 when statewide weather records begin.”

    State Climatologist, John Nielsen-Gammon from his briefing report to the Texas Legislature on the 2010-2011 drought, October 31, 2011

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  • Wildfire

    “These fires are serious and widespread, and as mean as I have ever seen.”

    -Texas Governor, Rick Perry, September 6, 2011

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  • Hurricane

    “My family is traumatized. I kept them here, promising them everything would be alright, but this is the real deal and I won't stay no more.”


    -Steven Rushing, a commercial fisherman in Galveston who tried to ride out Hurricane Ike with his wife and several family members

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  • Tornado

    “When we opened the door, we were outside."

    Quental Austin, resident of Lancaster, TX, April 3, 2012

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  • Ice

    “North Texas caught in icy grip —Texarkana languishing in the dark.”

    -Dallas Morning News headline, December 28, 2000

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  • Insects

    “This was really a beautiful street, it was very tree-lined with a lot of foliage. It's a shame that one bug does this to all our trees."

    -St. Paul, MN, resident Peter Andersen, during the removal of trees along California street, November 2009

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  • Disease

    “Oak wilt doesn't know the boundaries between houses, like we do when we edge our yard or mow it.”

    -Damon Waitt, senior botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, as reported in the Austin American-Statesman, May 26, 2007

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  • Texas A&M Forest Service

    Protecting and sustaining forests, trees
    and related natural resources since 1915

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Trees and Forests

provide many ecological, social, and environmental benefits, including retaining and filtering storm water, replenishing groundwater, filtering air, reducing heat in our cities, increasing property values and providing safe, comfortable places where we live work and play. 

In the last decade Texas lost millions of trees – and their valuable benefits - to a variety of natural disasters in communities across Texas. 

The TreeCovery Fund helps recover and reforest these communities.

Texas A&M Forest Service provides statewide leadership to assure the state's trees, forests and related natural resources are protected and sustained for the benefit of all.

Texas A&M Forest Service was created in 1915 by the 34th Legislature as an integral part of The Texas A&M University System. Texas A&M Forest Service is recognized as the leader in defining forestry of the future for Texas and the nation through its applied programs in forest and tree development; wildfire prevention, mitigation and protection; urban and community forestry and a host of other innovative forest sustainability programs.

Conserve

Texas A&M Forest Service works to ensure the state’s forests, trees and related natural resources are conserved and continue to provide a sustainable flow of environmental and economic benefits today and for future generations.

Protect

Texas A&M Forest Service is the lead agency for the state for all-hazard responses, including suppression of wildfires and the management of state disasters such as the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike. 

Lead

High-tech resources allow real-time, comprehensive, meaningful information delivery. Local governments, timber investment organizations, private landowners, corporations, emergency responders and citizens depend on the agency’s ability to gather, analyze and efficiently disseminate accurate information.