Drought easing, but Cobb UGA Extension agent warns mature trees are dying

By Mark Woolsey

Horticultural experts say with a welcome and at least temporary reprieve from the drought underway, they have their fingers crossed.

This week could see rainfall to the tune of an inch, especially in some areas south of Atlanta. That’s after roughly a third of an inch of rain fell across Metro Atlanta the first half of the week.

Cobb County UGA cooperative extension  agent Rob Trawick indicates that while landscaping, forage and rural crops have all suffered, he ‘s most dismayed by how the county’s trees are faring.

“Every little bit helps,” he says.” and it’s fantastic news temperatures are not as high as they have been,” reducing evaporation of what little moisture has managed to hang on.

Trawick says more and more, mature trees that have been established for 15,20, 25 years are dying.

“In good times, trees use sunlight to manufacture carbohydrates that are stored in the root system,” he says.

 Then when dry weather hits, trees draw on those carbohydrates. He says if conditions deteriorate sufficiently, trees also quit the photosynthesis process so that they’re drawing on stored reserves but not producing new  “food.”

And that can very well be a killer.

Trawick says he’s hopeful that the next few days will interrupt the decline. He’s hopeful that at least some of the expected precipitation falls as a slow soaker, which is likely to permeate the soil more deeply than rain from a thundershower, which is more likely to run off and do less good.

Much of the metro area is short by about seven inches of rain for 2026.