W
hile Georgia's 2023 heat wave was hot and wet, in
Louisiana and Texas, it was hot and dry. Alexandria,
Louisiana Landscape Architect and Urban Forester Darren
Green doesn't have in-house crews, but says, "I hear
constantly from my contractors (arborist and landscape)
that they have to start earlier, quit earlier, and go slower.
They're not getting as much done. The extreme heat
index makes your brain foggy; you lose your sharpness."
Adding to that—Green said that, as of the day we
spoke (August 21, 2023), Alexandria hadn't had rain
in an entire month, putting extraordinary stress on
trees and other plants. (We'll be getting into the toll
of climate change on trees—and which trees are
showing the most resilience—in future stories.)
Green says that Alexandria, in the center of Louisiana,
had a record-breaking 22 consecutive days over 100°F
(37.8°C), from July 25 to August 15, 2023. It reached
110°F (43.3°C) on two of those days, the hottest in the
city's history of keeping records. When you factored
in the humidity, the heat index was 115°F (46.1°C)
or greater, resulting in an extreme heat warning. "At
115°F heat index with 85% humidity, you can't physi-
cally drink enough water," Green says. Like Green, San
Antonio, Texas City Forester Michael Holinsky, who
works out of the Urban Forestry Division of the Parks
and Recreation Department, has stories to tell. He is
Canadian and came to San Antonio in 2021 after serving
as Halifax, Nova Scotia City Forester. As such, he brings
an interesting perspective on weather extremes.
"In Canada, it can be very uncomfortable all year—too
hot or cold, and the weather fluctuates—you can't accli-
mate in a meaningful way," Holinsky says. "Here, San
Antonians acclimate because it's so hot for so long,
especially for those who are working in it every day,
like our crews." That said, the heat in the summer of
2023 set records, and the hot/dry combination has been
devastating to the City's trees, according to Holinsky.
San Antonio's tree crew starts work at 6:30 a.m.
"We brief our crews every morning about the heat
stress potential for that day and remind everyone
On the UCFS website you can see a superb
Heat Stress Risk Assessment from Surrey,
British Columbia, and an excellent example of a
Heat Safety Bulletin from Portland, Oregon as
part of its Heat Illness Prevention Plan. Unlike
tree crew members in San Antonio, Texas, for
example, outdoor workers in more temperate
places like Surrey and Portland are, in general,
less likely to be acclimatized to extreme heat
events. A formal plan can be a good safety
strategy for coping with those intermittent events.
38 CityTREES
