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June, 2006
California Oak Report
"Oak Woodlands"
For California Environmental Quality Act purposes: "Oak woodlands" means a given unit of land where a plurality of the live trees are native oaks and the project site contains 10 percent or more oak canopy cover. "Oak canopy cover" means the area directly under the live branches of the oak trees, often defined as a percent, of a given unit of land. "A given unit of land" means the land contained within the project site. "Stand" means the area of the project site covered by tree canopy cover.
Uncertain Future for California Wine Regions
It appears the clear-cutting of tens of thousands of oak woodland acres by the California wine industry may turn out to be a short-term economic gain, with long-term ecological consequences. According to a paper published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in another 50 years famed wine producing areas such as the Napa Valley will likely relinquish their supremacy to other lands as higher temperatures redefine wine regions worldwide.
Global warming may be the driving force for California wine industry proposals to covert vast coastal tracts of Sonoma and Mendocino County redwood/Douglas-fir forests to vineyards. Wine grapes are generally grown in a narrow band of land with average temperatures between 50 and 68 degrees. If it gets much hotter, many world class wine regions, including the Napa Valley, may be either at or nearing their optimum climates for the varieties now grown there.
In Napa, the minimum temperature has gone up nearly five degrees over the past 75 years, while the growing season has increased by more than 50 days. The grapes often ripen in August rather than September, when it's hot enough for spontaneous fermentation, says Gregory Jones, a climatologist who specializes in viticulture at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.
To Jones' mind, the Napa Valley is already a little too hot to grow great grapes. He says if it had never been planted in grapes and people asked him now if they should start a vineyard there, he'd say, "Don't do it."
Oaks 2040 Sneak Peak
Below are findings from the forthcoming California Oak Foundation publication, Oaks 2040: Status and Future Trends of Oaks in California.
Note: 'Developed' means greater than 32 housing units per square mile by 2000. 'At Risk' refers to land not developed by 2000 but expected to develop by 2040.
Key Oak Woodland Counties
Nearly 30,000 acres of oak woodlands in Mendocino are at risk of development by 2040, more than half of the North Coast Region total.
Shasta at 550,000 oak woodland acres contains over half of the Northern Interior Region total and its oak woodlands are most in jeopardy, with 15% developed and 25,000 acres at risk.
In the Sacramento Region, Tehama has 70,000 acres of oak woodlands that may be developed by 2040. Both Butte and Yuba have 50,000 acres at risk.
Monterey in the Central Coast Region is uniquely diverse, with more than 250,000 acres of blue oak woodlands and an equal amount of Coast live oak woodlands.
Nearly 250,000 acres of oak woodlands in the San Joaquin Region are at risk of development by 2040. Tulare has nearly 30,000 acres at risk.
San Diego contains practically all of the states Engelmann oak woodlands and more than 67% of the Southern Region oak woodlands at risk.
Emergency Oak Woodland Counties
Despite having under 30,000 acres of oak woodlands, Santa Cruz has the highest percentage of woodlands at risk in the state and in excess of 75% of the county's oak woodlands have been developed, only a remnant 15% are safe.
In Sonoma 23% of county oak woodlands have been developed and an additional 9% are at risk.
Significant portions of San Luis Obispo are unmapped and large populations of oak woodlands are known to exist in these unmapped areas; this oak woodland mapping gap should be immediately addressed by the State of California.
City of Angels Upgrades Oak Protection
Los Angeles has increased city protection of all oaks (except scrub oak), California bay laurel, black walnut and the Western sycamore. It is now illegal to remove or fatally harm any of these species if they measure at least 4 inches diameter at 54 inches above ground level and parcels of less than one acre must comply with the ordinance. LA County officials are also considering tougher native tree regulations that could be in place by the end of summer.
Damaging a native tree by poisoning, burning, imperiling the root system or changing its natural grade is forbidden. Ordinance exemptions include removal of trees in danger of falling, dying trees, homeowner planted trees and trees that stymie the property's "reasonable development." Permits require residents to hire an arborist for advice and replace the lost tree with two new native ones somewhere on the lot.
"Before this [enhanced] ordinance, Los Angeles had the worst protection of trees," said Paul Edelman, deputy director of natural resources and planning at the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. "People could do whatever they wanted. Now we're knocking on the door of the more elite, native tree protective cities."
Santa Clara Land Conservation Initiative
People for Land and Nature, a coalition of local conservation organizations, has qualified the Santa Clara County Land Conservation Initiative for the November election. The Initiative will help protect hillsides, rangelands and agriculture in unincorporated Santa Clara County by amending the County General Plan to reduce the number of parcels in rural areas available for development.
The measure would affect roughly 400,000 acres, nearly half of all the land in the county, by reducing the number of parcels that can be developed on ranch lands and hillsides. It places additional safeguards on, riparian corridors, sensitive wildlife habitat and scenic views. More information can be found at Open Space 2006.
Merchandise
Regenerating Rangeland Oaks in California by Douglas D. McCreary. -- A manual for restorationists, oak woodland managers and those involved in oak planting projects. Chapters on poor natural regeneration, acorn physiology, collection and storage of acorns for regeneration, oak seedling propagation, and planting, protecting and maintaining oak seedlings in the field. 62 pages. Paperback $10, Members $9, plus sales tax, shipping and handling.
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