Oak Woodland Policy — Abstract of Paper


When Oak Ordinances Fail: Unaddressed Issues of Oak Conservation
Rudolph H. Light¹ and Linda E. Pedroni¹


The mandate by the California Board of Forestry in 1993 required each of the 41 counties which have significant oak woodlands to develop programs for the ultimate protection of this resource. As of 2001, a few counties have planned for the sustainability of their oak woodlands, but some counties may not be addressing the key components that will determine the overall future status of oak woodlands across counties and regions. Most counties and cities use the individual tree as the fundamental unit of conservation and neglect entirely the need for policies on oak woodland conservation and regeneration. They instead should regard the oak woodland as the functional unit and insist on large-scale regeneration. This paper presents some psychological reasons why the ingredients of some written plans are so inadequate that the plans have a high likelihood of failure. People tend to focus on their immediate environment while ignoring important background information and they base their planning judgments on small data sets, erroneously believing them to be representative of the larger environment. This often leads to poor policy decisions. Suggestions for reframing and broadening components of oak conservation are presented.