El Niño could wallop Modesto’s trees

The city of Modesto’s trees have been battered by four years of drought and more years of neglect brought on by budget cuts. Now they face the prospect of a wet and windy winter courtesy of El Niño.

That could mean trees, limbs and branches toppling and in some cases smashing into parked cars, houses and garages. The city got a taste of that last week when it received 82 calls Monday for downed limbs and branches – and in a few cases trees – when the winds kicked up after a rainstorm, according to Solid Waste Manager Jocelyn Reed, who oversees the city’s forestry division.

After years of budget and staff cuts to forestry, the city in July 2014 stabilized its funding and started restoring positions and duties. Forestry is reversing years of inadequate care of the city’s roughly 81,000 trees, which line city streets and have taken root in city parks and elsewhere. Two examples: Forestry has stepped up efforts to eradicate the parasite mistletoe from trees and since April has cut down about half of the roughly 2,000 bigger, older trees it identified as dead or dying.

But that may not be enough.

The federal Climate Prediction Center released its most recent U.S. precipitation map Thursday. It shows Modesto straddling the zones predicting 40 percent and 50 percent chances of above-normal precipitation from December through February. Modesto has a one-third chance of normal rainfall over the three months.

Public Works Director Bill Sandhu said the city is ready for El Niño but acknowledged the trees could take a walloping.

“We are prepared,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we can’t catch up in one year. It will take time, and we are getting a lot closer. We are doing everything we can, given the resources we have.”

A wet winter also means localized street flooding and residents in search of sandbags.

Streets Division Manager Jack Hunt said the city has doubled up on how much sand it has at its Corporation Yard, from 24 to 48 cubic yards, and has several thousand sandbags on hand. The sandbags are free for city residents.

About a third of Modesto is subject to localized street flooding because those areas use what are called rock wells to handle storm water, said Robert Englent, the city’s wastewater collections manager. He said the city has roughly 9,500 rock wells and has removed leaves, trash and other debris from the roughly one-third that are most prone to flooding. The city also has reconfigured all of the wells so they can hold more storm water.

“We started making preparations back in June,” Englent said.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 1:43 PM with the headline "El Niño could wallop Modesto’s trees."