When a state legislative committee met recently to discuss water demands for data centers in Oklahoma, the focus shifted quickly. Lawmakers linked the water needs of large data centers to another urgent issue that has caused deaths, fires, and widespread property loss across the state.
Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene, pointed to what he described as an escalating danger: the redcedar invasion.
During the hearing, the committee reviewed water supply reports from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The discussion centered on Stillwater, where Google is constructing a massive data center.
Dobrinski asked the agency’s representative about the role of redcedars in draining the state’s water supply. Each tree drinks five to 20 gallons or more of water each day, researchers report.
“We addressed a couple of years ago a trial study on the North Canadian [River] Watershed for trying to eliminate the invasive redcedar there because of their threat to the water supply in northwest Oklahoma,” he said.
The assistant majority whip warned that redcedars endanger both public safety and Oklahoma’s natural resources.
Dobrinski’s concern is backed by data. Oklahoma State University researchers estimate the state loses 300,000 acres each year to redcedar spread. These trees take over native prairie habitat, fuel devastating wildfires, and absorb billions of gallons of water annually.
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission has created the Invasive Woody Species Cost Share Program, allowing landowners to receive up to $50,000 for large-scale cedar removal.
A 2013 study by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission cited alarming data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service: “Oklahoma has 17 million acres of prairie, shrubland, crosstimbers forests and other forests. NRCS estimates that eight million acres of these 17 million are infested with at least 50 redcedars per acre. That is a 400% increase in infested acres in the past 50 years. NRCS also estimates that redcedar trees are now increasing in numbers at a rate of 762 acres a day or 300,000 acres each year. NRCS predicts 12.6 million acres will be infested by cedar with at least 50 trees per acre, and of those, eight million acres with at least 250 trees per acre.”
With Oklahoma expanding water-intensive industries such as data centers, lawmakers like Dobrinski argue the state cannot ignore how the redcedar invasion threatens both water and safety.