TREES ALSO FIND GOING ROUGH IN THE FLOOD

When we look at pictures of the flooding, most of us see submerged homes and businesses, telltale street signs poking out of the water, or even roads ending abruptly in rippling water stretching to the horizon.

But Sharon Houar, a resource forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation, has given a lot of thought to the trees since the floodwaters came to stay in mid-June.

Houar has checked the trees by boat and has walked along flooded areas, checking color, branches and leaves for signs of life and death.

"Most of the trees are doing a lot better than we expected," Houar said. "Others have turned brown and are dying."

The irony is that the trees are literally dying of thirst and suffocating under the blanket of water. They cannot get enough water and oxygen to their branches.

"The water has dumped a bunch of silt on the root systems of the trees," she said. "It's easy for some trees accustomed to the flooding to sprout new roots near; others cannot.

"There's not enough oxygen in the water itself for the trees to absorb and sustain themselves," she continued. "So it's literally a drought situation for some of the younger trees and those unaccustomed to the heavy flooding."

A tree's root system is shaped like a champagne glass, with tentacles ballooning out from the tree, running not more than three or four feet into the ground. The upper roots absorb oxygen; the lower roots soak up water and nutrients, and the two are mixed to form food for the tree's canopy.

Houar said the tips of branches of submerged silver maple trees are turning red "because they don't have the strength to get the nutrient-carrying water to their branches."

Most of the trees which border the Mississippi River channel and the Diversion Channel are used to the high water, but not for such a long period of time, she said.

"Cottonwoods and willows can put up with the water," Houar said. "They can grow roots quickly and have learned to live with lower levels of water."

But others aren't quite as adaptable. "Dogwoods don't put up with wet feet very well and the sassafras look awful," Houar said.

As a result of the deaths of smaller trees such as the dogwoods, red buds and sassafras trees with traditionally bright-colored blooms the riverfront will not be quite so colorful next spring.

Other trees may go dormant early this year, Houar said, exhausted from their struggle with the water.

"Some are already turning to their fall colors and losing their leaves; others soon will," Houar said. "They've had a long, hard season and are going to bed early this year.

"If trees do not have the nutrients to sustain continued growth, they will go into hibernation early," she continued. In the case of the smaller, flowering trees, they struggled against the elements too long, and will now die, she said.

The oak family trees in the area are used to a wet season, but the flooding has more than doubled the amount of time the trees usually are required to battle the elements, Houar said.

"Some of them might go dormant early as a result of that. But the pin oaks are doing surprisingly well, though. They are showing very few signs of stress."

As the floodwaters recede, trees will provide a gauge of how high the water actually got in places.

"Everything that was under water is going to be dead," Houar said. "There will be no leaves, no plants nothing."

On the other hand, all kinds of seeds have been swept away and redeposited throughout the flood zones, leaving behind a bumper crop to sprout up in nutrient-rich silt during the next growing season.

The Missouri Department of Conservation lost dozens of 2-year-old seedlings to the floodwaters, planted in Apple Creek State Park. The department has ordered new trees, and hopes the water recedes before they arrive.

"We ordered a lot of trees with the words `swamp' or `water' in the tree's name" Houar said. "We're not going to run the risk of losing this group to the water."

After the water recedes, Houar said, dead trees will just rot away or fall in place, making way for new foliage.

"After the water is gone, the trees will really enjoy all of the oxygen," she said. "They'll all breathe a sigh of relief."