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June 2008
California Oak Report
Savvy Voters Rebuff Environmental Assault
By a margin of nearly two to one California voters have rejected the developer-backed Proposition 98, which used the guise of eminent domain reform to pursue an agenda of gutting environmental regulations. By a 67 to 33 percent margin the public instead supported the more direct and sensible eminent domain reform measure, Proposition 99. Proposition 99 tackles the tough eminent domain reform our state needs while protecting communities from urban sprawl and allowing our elected officials to protect the environment.
Oak Carbon Data Imminent
The California Oak Foundation will soon publish "An Inventory of Carbon and California Oaks" as an addendum to COF’s Oaks 2040: The Status and Future of Oaks in California (2006). Carbon inventory analyst Tom Gaman is a Registered Professional Forester, COF board member and co-author with Jeffrey Firman of Oaks 2040. Dale Weyermann of the US Forest Service provided valuable assistance to the oaks carbon project.
The carbon inventory analysis estimates that, "California oak woodlands and forests could sequester a billion tons of carbon [and] up to 33 million tons of sequestered carbon are at risk [by 2040] of entering the atmosphere should development processes eliminate these oak woodlands and forests, and their associated carbon pools."
How significant are 33 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions? The Fred van Eck Forest, the state’s showcase conifer forest CO2 demonstration project, has a certified carbon sequestration capacity of 500,000 tons. California would have to create 66 van Eck’s in the next 30 years just to counter the CO2 emission impacts from the estimated conversion of 750,000 acres of oak resources by 2040.
An Inventory of Carbon and California Oaks
Policymakers are recognizing that the ability of oak woodlands and forests to sequester and store atmospheric carbon contributes to the health and well-being of Californians. Oaks 2040 identified almost 13 million acres of oak woodland and forests in California. This research project quantifies these carbon assets and evaluates their future ability to sequester additional carbon. Oak sequestration by oak type is provided for each California oak county.
Conclusions
There are approximately 325 million metric tons of above-and below ground carbon sequestered in live and dead oak trees on 12.9 million acres (5.2 million hectares) of oak woodlands and forests in California. Dead trees account for approximately 4% of the total. The data for live and dead trees were processed by region using the methods described by the California Climate Action Registry Forest Project Protocol (2007). Another 350 million tons of carbon are sequestered in understory vegetation, down woody material, and in soil horizons. Therefore California oak woodlands and forests together sequester over 675 million metric tons of carbon. These calculations are comparable to those that can be generated by the Carbon On-Line Estimator tool (USFS 2008).
Understory shrubs ranged from 11-21 tons per hectare, depending on shrub density and increasing with stand age. Coarse woody debris varied according to fuel loading 5-14 tons/hectare on average, actually decreasing with stand age. Duff and litter carbon varied from 28-31 tons per hectare and stayed consistent across age classes. Soil organic matter, down to a depth of 1 meter, was also consistent at 28 tons/hectare in these forest and woodland types.
Thirty eight percent of plots fell in non forest inclusion areas in oak woodlands. These areas, a minimum of one acre in size, are non stocked areas too small to be mapped as non forest (using Department of Forestry methodology). If these plots are more or less evenly distributed among the woodland types, that would mean that California has the capacity to reforest these areas, thereby increasing the carbon sequestration in our oak woodlands by 103 million metric tons in tree biomass alone. If this is to be done over a 75 year period, then we may have the capacity to capture an additional 1.3 million tons of carbon per year through reforestation and conservation of trees in California's existing oak woodlands.
Oaks are long lived trees. If we assume that our current oak woodlands and forests average 100 years of age, then we can expect to sequester almost three million tons of additional carbon a year by protecting and conserving these trees throughout the 21st century. Other methods, including interplanting, improved grazing management, and conservation based sustainable forestry, have the ability to capture additional carbon, measurable on a case by case basis.
2008 Legislation
The Planning and Conservation League reports that at the midpoint of the legislative term, two bills with potential ramifications for oak resources remain active. Both Assembly Bills 2093 and 2447 are authored by Assemblymember Dave Jones, Sacramento. These bills are now being considered in the State Senate:
AB 2093 requires cities and counties to include policies that address the emission of greenhouse gases in their General Plans, either when the General Plan is updated or when their housing element update is due.
AB 2093 is a reiteration of California Department of Justice legal opinions, which were directly expressed by Attorney General Brown to 534 local officials in a February 2008 letter. Counties that have completed General Plan updates without addressing climate change issues would be wise to immediately amend their deficient GPs. When conversion of oak woodlands to non-forest use takes place, it is indisputable that substantial CO2 biological emissions occur. Local general plans and California Environmental Quality Act reviews must consider this fact.
AB 2447 requires that a county deny approval of a tentative subdivision map if it is in a State Responsibility Area or an area of high fire risk. The bill allows a county to approve a new subdivision in a high fire risk area only if they certify that the project meets the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s subdivision design standards.
Assemblymember Jones has stated he believes more emphasis should be placed on whether homes in high fire risk areas should be approved in the first place and that any county approving such a development should have to demonstrate conformance with state fire protection standards in order to proceed. AB 2447 passage is likely to mean stringent defensible space standards for new developments, including extensive removal of oaks within or surrounding subdivisions.
Merchandise
Oaks of California by Bruce Pavlik, Pamela Muick, Sharon Johnson and Marjorie Popper and co-published by COF and Cachuma Press. A beautifully photographed book illustrating the natural and cultural history of California’s twenty species of native oaks. 184 full-color pages, soft cover, $24.95 ($22.46 for members) plus tax, shipping and handling.
On Our Website
Fire in California’s Oak Woodlands by Douglas McCreary
Written in the wake of the Southern California fire siege several years ago, this article gives a history of fires in California. In the current fire season, it is a timely reminder that "trees can appear dead, since all leaves are brown and brittle and the boles may be blackened. But many of these trees will survive and it is important that landowners understand this since some may want to cut these trees down, believing they will not recover."
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