Second
Progress Report
Jan 1988–Jan 1989
University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
College of Natural Resources, Berkeley
Department of Forestry & Resource Management
December 1989
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CASE STUDIES
PROJECT ACORN
Like the planted acorns above, many planted acorns are eaten by mammals and birds unless adequate measures are taken to protect them.
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Statement of Problem
In September 1988, a fire swept through Western Nevada County destroying 200 homes and burning over 35,000 acres of land. The principle trees affected were several species of oaks. While some of the killed trees would, no doubt, sprout back from their stumps, others would not. To insure that a new generation of oaks became quickly established, a program was started to collect and plant acorns in fire-damaged areas.
"Project Acorn" began with a call for volunteers to gather acorns in nearby unburned areas. There was some urgency to this request since no acorns were available in storage. Acorns don’t store well for more than a few months. If the current acorn crop was not collected within two months of the fire, it would be another year before an oak planting operation could get underway. It also seemed there was a much greater chance of establishing vigorous, healthy seedlings if acorns were planted right away, since conditions favoring seedling growth and survival were expected to be particularly good immediately following the fire.
Several methods were used to get the public involved. A flyer was distributed asking for help in gathering acorns, and an information sheet prepared, which outlines recommended procedures for collecting, storing, and planting acorns. There also was a front-page feature article in the local newspaper on the Project, as well as a radio interview. A collection bucket at the Nevada County Extension Office was set up so that anyone gathering acorns could drop them off.
Public response was tremendous. Over 1,000 pounds of acorns were collected by a variety of groups and individuals. Several acorn- gathering expeditions were arranged with local schools and scout organizations. As the acorns were collected and dropped off, they were all soaked for a day and then placed in a large cooler at the UC Sierra Foothill Range Field Station. (The "floaters", which are generally of poor quality, were discarded.)
After the first of the year the planting phase of the project began. Four Saturday workshops were held to train people on the best techniques for planting, protecting and maintaining acorns and seedlings, and another information leaflet describing these procedures was prepared and distributed. There was another feature article in the newspaper and a radio interview described the program, encouraged participation, and announced the training sessions. Bags of 100 acorns from each of the five native oak species were distributed during these meetings and were also kept in a refrigerator and made available at the local Extension Office for anyone to pick up. People could also check out planting tools, including shovels and trowels, which were purchased for the project by the local Rotary Club. A lumberyard also donated 36 aprons that were lent out for holding acorns during planting operations. In addition to volunteer plantings, a California Youth Authority Crew was recruited for a week to plant acorns on BLM and State Parks land burned in the fire.
By mid-March, 80% of the acorns had been planted. While it’s difficult and too early to evaluate the success of this program in terms of oak tree establishment, the project has certainly been successful in terms of educating the public about the important value of oaks, and in generating a great deal of public interest, enthusiasm, and participation.
Coast live oak (Q. agrifolia)
Leaf print by Ida Geary
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ANR Youth Workshop
The Agriculture and Natural Resources Youth Workshop conducted at the San Joaquin Experimental Range is designed to teach wise use and conservation of natural resources on hardwood rangeland. The audience was selected 14-to-16 year olds from 4-H clubs and high schools in Mariposa, Madera, Fresno and Tulare counties. The workshop was conducted on March 30 and 31, 1988, and again on April 4 and 5, 1989.
The workshop was a cooperative effort of the University of California Cooperative Extension; CATI, California State University, Fresno; the USDA, Soil Conservation Service and Forest Service; Society for Range Management; two County Fine Committees and either local Resource Conservation Districts. A steering committee of 4-H advisors, biology instructors, agriculture instructors, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection personnel, and the California Department of Fish and Game helped develop the topics to be covered in the two-day workshop.
Classroom and field sessions dealing with the ecology of hardwood rangelands, the multiple uses which occur on these lands, and the interactions among those uses provided students with an integrated educational experience. A major emphasis was the education of students on various methods of vegetation manipulation and the impact of these changes on wildlife and livestock production. To provide students with a means of assessing vegetation changes, they were exposed to common vegetation-monitoring techniques and data interpretation.
Construction Among the Oaks Workshop
The Preliminary Guidelines for Managing Hardwood Rangelands is being identified as an important reference dealing with oak management.
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Residential development is responsible for about 85 percent of the oak woodland lost over the past 15 years. As a result, there has been an increasing number of requests coming to Cooperative Extension offices asking for information on landscaping among oaks.
To address these issues a workshop entitled Construction Among the Oaks was developed by the IHRMP for Sonoma County in cooperation with the Sonoma County UCCE Farm Advisor’s office, the local California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection office, arborists, planners, and landscape architects. This workshop was directed toward landscape professionals and developers involved in the design and construction of newly-formed residential areas. The workshop was held on 26 January, 1989. Over 200 planners, horticultural professionals, arborists, landscape architects, contractors and developers attended. The large turnout of this audience directly involved with urbanization of California hardwood rangelands shows the potential this educational approach has for each of these important groups
An evaluation indicated that the majority of participants were interested in two species of oak, valley and coast live oak. Seventy percent of the respondents indicated that the material in the workshop was "very useful." A similar percentage indicated interest in attending additional workshops on managing California’s native oaks.
Monterey County Local Ordinances
In fall of 1988, public concern about clearcutting of oaks for firewood in southern Monterey County prompted a county proposal to ban oak tree harvesting on hardwood rangelands. The IHRMP became involved in mitigating this "hotspot" through direct intervention by presenting the concepts of the Preliminary Guidelines for Managing Hardwood Rangelands to the landowner in question. The landowner agreed to follow this approach, and the concern expressed by the neighbor was alleviated. The county voted down this very restrictive ordinance, and a task force of diverse interests in the county proposed an ordinance that takes into account the differences between extensive ranch management, and tree management in urbanizing areas. The ordinance will require ranchers to follow the Preliminary Guidelines to cut firewood. More stringent prescriptive standards are proposed for urbanizing areas. It appears that this will give the IHRMP a good opportunity to get excellent information on who is actually cutting oak firewood and target educational efforts to woodcutters.
Oregon white oak
(Q. garryana)
Leaf print by Ida Geary
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Hardwood Range Resource Networking Committees
There is increasing interest by local groups in oak-related issues, creating an increase in policy making by local governments. Communication between various groups has often been lacking. Resource managers have historically had little input into local decision-making. A mechanism to input research results and educational materials developed by the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program to local government is necessary. Also, coordination between agencies involved with the IHRMP, namely University of California, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the California Department of Fish and Game, is needed to prevent duplication of effort at the local level.
Next year in five pilot counties local committees be formed composed of a broad cross-section of groups and agencies with interest in the hardwood range resource. The specific objective of these committees would be:
- Identify local concerns and information needs, including specific "critical areas" in the county;
- Serve as a local resource base of expertise on hardwood range issues;
- Address important oak issues as they emerge in the county;
- Provide input into local policy-making;
- Evaluate the success of educational activities in the county in addressing problems identified by the committee;
Expected Results
These network committees are expected to improve communication between diverse interests in the county and result in broad-based priority setting for local research and education efforts. It is also expected that this mechanism will improve the link of the IHRMP directly into local policy-making activities.
Evaluation
- Conduct survey of the network members at the beginning of the committee’s activities, and again after two years. Document the interest level of committee members in oaks, the degree of communication with other groups, the general priorities for hardwood range resources, the range of feasible policy instruments, and determine the extent to which the networks were helpful in local consensus building.
- Document local and county policies affecting the hardwood range resource at the beginning of the network, and again after two years, and determine the role the network group played in policy-making.
- Show the links between the network committee and the planning board and the county Board of Supervisors.
- Trace the history of committee participation and priorities suggested.
Engelmann Oak Geographic Information System
GIS mapping of the distribution of Engelmann oaks should prove useful in planning developments in San Diego County.
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Engelmann oak woodlands cover approximately 35,000 acres, about one-tenth the area of metropolitan Los Angeles. The distribution overlaps three of the fastest-growing regions of the country: western Riverside County, Orange County, and San Diego County. Two factors, the need for a comprehensive plan to manage Engelmann oaks and the lack of information on the scattered distribution of the species, prompted a project to begin mapping Engelmann oak woodlands in 1987. Since that time, all woodlands over 2-1/2 acres have been mapped within the range of Engelmann oak, separating stands into six classes of canopy dominance—ranging from rare (category 1) to pure stands (category 6). Each stand was mapped from aerial photographs and field-checked for accuracy in boundary and canopy classification. These data were entered into an ARCINFO geographic information system (GIS) on the campus at UC Riverside so that the data could be easily retrieved in a number of different forms.
In general, Engelmann oaks grow between the dry coastal plains and the cold montane areas of southern California within a rainfall minima of approximately 6 inches per year and an elevational maximum of approximately 4200 feet. Engelmann oaks range over approximately 80,000 acres of woodlands, although they are subdominant (comprise less than 50 percent of canopy area) to other tree species over 52% of that area. This project has split into three new directions: 1) developing alternatives for conserving Engelmann oaks based on the current rates and locations of woodland loss; 2) developing models of site conditions for Engelmann oaks that can be used for evaluation of restorations projects; and 3) developing management alternatives for specific stands of Engelmann oaks based on models of stand-age and stand-size distributions.
Information on Engelmann oak distribution has become the cornerstone of an interagency network effort in San Diego County. This first application of the GIS has provided information to a number of groups interested in the management of Engelmann oak woodlands. The plan is for future discussions on the species to be based on the GIS data and that this information will be viewed as credible by land developers, land planners, resource planners, and conservation groups.
Information on Engelmann oak ecological sites will be developed using the GIS. The products of this study would be passed on to agency personnel, restoration professionals, and private landowners as guidelines for restoring oak woodlands in a manner similar to the multiple use management (MUM) rating system in the Preliminary Guidelines for Managing Hardwood Rangelands. By defining the elevation, aspect, slope, rainfall, and soils of Engelmann oak woodlands, it will be possible to offer: 1) suggestions on where restoration is most likely to succeed; 2) the probabilities of success and potential problems associated with sub-optimal sites; and 3) techniques that can be used to improve the probabilities of success for restoration projects.
Oak Woodland Owner Survey
From May to September, 1988, Pete C. Passof, Extension Forest Advisor, conducted a survey to determine a profile of the typical California oak-woodland owner. Passof, of UC Cooperative Extension in Mendocino County, received 1,724 responses to the survey. Respondents were oak woodland owners in El Dorado, Placer, Madera, Riverside, Mendocino, Monterey, and San Diego Counties.
According to the survey, the typical oak woodland owner is a white male over 50 years old with a salaried income. He purchased his property to return to the "country life", has lived there for over 10 years, has not sold any of it for the last 3 years, and has no intention of selling in the next 10 years.
Typical oak woodland property is a 3-to-10 acre parcel less than a quarter mile from a paved road with a subdivision within five miles. It depends upon well water, is fenced, and is protected by the local volunteer fire department. The owner resides full or part-time in a medium-sized home on the property and does not raise livestock.
Photograph courtesy of Lynn Huntsinger
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Very interested in the future of oaks, the typical owner believes that oaks are suffering from land development pressures and from firewood harvesting. He also blames oak mortality on insects, diseases, and a lack of water.
Beauty and shade, plus increased property values, are seen as primary oak values. Woodland owners see no disadvantages to the presence of oaks, except for potential wildfire hazards. They restrict their activities to cutting their own firewood and some oak thinning to improve tree growth.
The majority of respondents had not discussed oaks or had received any information on them with the exception of an occasional newspaper article.
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