Each county precinct was given access Jan. 24 to its own $500,000 account, for a total of $2 million, to remove dead or dying trees affected by the region's ongoing drought.

Preliminary data from the Texas Forest Service shows that about 500 million trees in Texas died as a result of the drought conditions. In Harris County, loblolly pines were most affected by the lack of rain.

Since the drought caused a bigger than normal issue with dead trees in the county, several departments worked together to set up the accounts. Each precinct led the charge in articulating the concern, but the county's architecture and engineering department worked with the budget management office to establish the accounts. It will be up to each precinct to determine how to best combat the issue, according to the department of architecture and engineering.