Lake Highlands Park the morning after the storm

A rough thunderstorm rolled through the White Rock area Tuesday, toppling several erstwhile towering trees in Lake Highlands Park at Buckner and Lake Highlands Drive.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

The last time we saw so many trees felled around White Rock Lake Park, we asked an arborist about it.

March storm damage

City of Dallas Arborist Philip Erwin at the time said it’s difficult to tell from photos, but “there can be numbers of causes, not the least is the stress related to drought and fluctuations in the weather.  This is a concern for any area where people may frequent the location because we can see weakened trees break in structurally weak areas to relatively light stresses.”

While the city has a team of arborists and foresters who work to maintain healthy trees and rid public parks of sick ones, it is a big job, and it is impossible to predict every tree that might succumb to a weather event.

Ripped out at the root

 

 The trees at White Rock park, for example, “are more difficult to keep up with because of the sheer number of trees,” Erwin noted, “but the parks maintenance staff does important work in removing significant high-risk or hazard trees as they are discovered.”

He added that trees on our own property should be checked as well. “We encourage property owners to have their tall trees checked periodically by credentialed professional arborists for their structural integrity and health.”

RIP tree

See video of the park on our Facebook page.