Cedar fever!

I kicked my own ass yesterday, and I’m paying for it today. I have a reminder living in my head of the misery that Cedar (Ashe Juniper) can bring to visit some of us humans in the month of January in central Texas. Yesterday I was out near Marble Falls in Double Horn Creek marking a property line for an electrical underground service and I had to pick my way through some very thick Cedar to do the job, big mistake. A few minutes in I started sneezing, and then my nose shut down, and my eyes started burning. What was I thinking? I should have known better. Welcome to central Texas in January.I have sneezed my way through 3 boxes of Kleenex in the past 24 hours.

From Wikipedia:

Juniperus ashei (Ashe Juniper) is a drought-tolerant evergreen shrub or small tree, native to northeastern Mexico and the south-central United States north to southern Missouri; the largest areas are in central Texas, where extensive stands occur. It grows up to 10 m tall, rarely 15 m, and provides erosion control and year-round shade for wildlife and livestock.
The feathery foliage grows in dense sprays, bright green in color. The leaves are scale-like, 2-5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. It is a dioecious species, with separate male and female plants. The seed cones are globose to oblong, 3-6 mm long, and soft, pulpy and berry-like, green at first, maturing purple about 8 months after pollination. They contain 1-2 seeds, which are dispersed when birds eat the cones and pass the seeds in their droppings. The male cones are 3-5 mm long, yellow, turning brown after pollen release in December to February.
The pollen causes a severe allergic reaction for some people in the winter, and people who are allergic to Ashe juniper are also often allergic to the related Juniperus virginiana. Consequently, what begins as an allergy in the winter, may extend into spring since the pollination of J. virginiana follows after that of J. ashei. Ashe juniper is sometimes known in the area as "mountain cedar" (although neither it nor J. virginiana are cedars), and some locals refer to the allergy as cedar fever.

Although Cedar is native to Central Texas, the proliferation of overgrazing of livestock in the late 1800’s allowed by the invention of barbed wire, enabled Cedar to overtake the native grasses and dominate rocky areas like the Hill Country. I favor the eradication of Cedar. Each mature Cedar tree sucks 12 gallons of water a day from the soil, water that would otherwise nourish native grasses. I have removed about 15 acres of   Cedar on the BEE Ranch, and the native grasses have come back. I still have more work to do, but Cedar is losing the war. In the mean time January is a good month to take a vacation away from central Texas.