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HOW TO HELP
Get Involved – At the Local Level
In response to many inquiries from our members, following is some information on how to proceed with oak woodland issues in your community. The most important advice is GET INVOLVED EARLY… If you hear bulldozers, your options are very limited!
1) Do your homework
-Gather as much information as you can about the oak tree or woodland that is threatened.
-Talk to neighbors, check at the local library for historic photos, etc.
-Write up all of the information you can find.
2) Oak woodland conservation requires partners
-Consider the likely and unlikely people or organizations that would have an interest in your cause.
-Contact businesses, youth groups, seniors, special interest organizations, and people from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. Bring people together to discuss strategies, costs and benefits, timelines, procedures, and project tasks.
-Ask for support and listen to ideas.
-Your efforts will be more effective and have a better "buy-in" from participants if everyone feels they are involved and important.
-Get partners to sign on to your effort or statement; ask people to contribute time, resources, or the use of their organization's office or their group's name.
3) Know your oak facts
-Oaks and other hardwoods are found on over 21 million acres in California, occurring in 48 of the state's 58 counties.
-Oak woodlands are the key to California's biodiversity, providing food, shelter and nesting opportunities for wildlife.
-Approximately 80% of hardwood rangelands are in private ownership, therefore wildlife conservation will depend in large part on the activities of private landowners.
-Oaks preserve water quality and increase water availability in California, by filtering runoff.
-Healthy perennial oak grasslands provide excellent protection from erosion, and produce a much lower fire fuel load potential.
-Oak trees, like all trees, help maintain air quality by taking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen.
-A small oak forest can provide habitat for over 4,000 species of insects, birds and plants.
-Oaks located on private property can add as much as 20% to the property's value; people will pay more for homes on tree-lined streets or property located near wooded open space.
-Trees contribute to a community's "livable" image, recognized by business and industry as a major factor in location decisions.
-Trees properly located near buildings can reduce the annual energy usage for winter heating and summer cooling.
4)Get the word out about oaks
-Summarize your research and oak information into a fact sheet; the most effective format is one page, double-sided.
-Distribute your information throughout your community, including businesses, local officials and opinion makers. Include short personalized cover letters where appropriate.
-Find out who your local media people are; write up a one-page press release and send it with your fact sheet. Be sure that the contact name and telephone number to call for more information is clearly listed.
5)Be there to make a difference: In saving oaks, timing is everything
-Find out the meeting times of your planning commission, board of supervisors, city council, local tree advisory council, or local California ReLeaf network group.
-Learn when public comments are due on oak issues, tree ordinances, general plan amendments, or environmental impact reports.
-Find out if written comments on a project are being accepted.
-Provide these meeting and comment dates to all of your partners.
-Set up a phone tree to turn out speakers for meetings or obtain letters of support. Appoint one person from each of your partner groups to notify others in that group.
-When turning out speakers for a meeting, make sure all important points are made. Arrange for all of the speakers to meet just before the meeting to refine your approach.
-Encourage people who are uncomfortable with speaking to come to the meeting anyway. They can stand up and be counted, and they can submit written comments.
6)Join the California Oak Foundation!
-Call, fax, email, or write the California Oak Foundation for more information or support; assisting our members is one of our primary goals!
-Sometimes we can send letters of support to assist you in your efforts. With as much lead time as possible, email or fax us with a description of the oak protection issue you are working on, the contact information of the key people involved, and some background on what steps you have taken so far. Let's get organized!
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