The drought has taken a serious toll on about 15,000 of the city's trees. Removing them will cost about $4.5 million in taxpayer money. That's more than 13 times what the city usually spends on tree removal in an average year.
That means the city will spend more on removing dead trees than it plans to spend on things like buying police cars or fire trucks.
The parks department says the dead trees pose a risk to the health and safety of Houstonians.
