One mature oak can move 100 gallons of water a day, and I had no idea until a client showed me her meter report
A homeowner in Fort Worth sent me her water bill last week because she thought her irrigation was leaking. Turns out the line to her sprinkler was fine, the guy who installed it threw a shutoff valve in the wrong spot and it had been weeping underground for 6 months. But the thing that got me was the city's water department actually sent her a usage chart showing her three live oaks were pulling around 100 gallons a day each in July. I've been climbing and pruning for 11 years and I never once thought to look up how much water a tree actually drinks. Anyone here ever used a client's utility data to talk them out of yanking a healthy tree?