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October 2006
California Oak Report
Oaks 2040
California Oak Foundation's new report, Oaks 2040: The Status and Future of Oaks in California is available in hard copy and online formats. The hard copy is a 16-page summary describing the status and trends of California's oaks highlighting state, regional and county oak woodland and oak forest data. COF members will be receiving their copy this fall. The online version has additional information, including oak woodlands most at risk of development. A component on sustainability will follow.
COF Responses to e-mail Questions About SB 1334
Q. What is the purpose of Senate Bill 1334?
A. Due to the historical failure of counties to properly apply the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to oak woodlands, Public Resources Code (PRC) section 21083.4 was enacted to reaffirm that CEQA requires "feasible" and "proportional" mitigation for significant oak woodland habitat impacts. SB 1334 institutes a cap on planting oaks for habitat mitigation and prescribes four mitigation options to obtain feasible and proportional oak woodlands mitigation.
Q. Does the lack of an SB 1334 "oak woodlands" definition indicate the legislature could not agree on a definition for the term?
A. It was unnecessary for the legislature to define oak woodlands in SB 1334 because they had already done so four years earlier in the Oak Woodlands Conservation Act of 2001: Lands that contain 10 percent oak canopy cover are considered oak woodlands. Furthermore, per PRC §4793(e) the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has communicated to county planning departments that the term significant stand of oak trees means those acres of land with 10 percent oak canopy cover (January 2006).
For a project site to be designated oak woodlands under SB 1334, all of the following must occur: (1) no commercial conifers are growing; (2) the majority of living trees are oaks; (3) the project site must average 10 percent oak canopy cover per acre.
Q. What is the function of the 10 percent oak canopy cover standard?
A. The 10 percent oak canopy cover standard determines whether oak woodland habitat exists and if SB 1334 mitigation standards apply. If significant oak woodland impacts occur, SB 1334 lists the CEQA mitigation alternatives available to counties to reduce impacts to less than significant. The 10 percent standard is unrelated to determining thresholds of significance or any other CEQA application beyond establishing the existence of oak woodlands.
The Sierra Nevada
The latest Oaks 2040 Blue oak, Interior live oak and Valley oak regeneration data is cause for concern in the Sierra foothills since none of the aforementioned are reproducing at levels unable to sustain existing oak woodlands. Statewide, Blue oak averages less than one seedling (one [1] foot or more in height) per two (2) established trees. Not a single Valley oak seedling was found on any of the 634 statewide oak woodland sample plots.
In Amador County and Calaveras County official, committees are drafting local oak regulations. Several local citizen groups concerned with rampant development are participating by submitting specific oak habitat conservation language into the discussions.
COF has forwarded oak woodlands conservation material to Tulare County planners for consideration in their general plan update. Tulare is very much in need of oak woodlands conservation standards, particularly with the 36,000-acre Yokohl Ranch project planning process recently initiated.
The first grants issued by the Sierra Nevada Cascade Conservation Grants Program have been awarded toward purchase of the 321-acre Freiheit Big Hill Preserve and the neighboring 320-acre Taylor Ranch Preserve in Placer County. The Placer Land Trust, working with the California Wildlife Foundation (CWF) and others, including COF, is on track to conserve the Freiheit and Taylor Blue oak woodland habitat bordering Coon Creek for $4.236 million. The successful Bickford Ranch lawsuit settlement will contribute $1.3 million to the effort.
Sierra Nevada Cascade also awarded Trust for Public Land $1 million to conserve 370 acres of dense Blue oak woodland in western El Dorado County. The S.H. Cowell Foundation property, known as Pointed Rocks, is crossed by a segment of the Western States Trail and is adjacent to the Auburn State Recreation Area and Bureau of Land Management property.
Business Supports Ballot Measures
Joining business leaders statewide, the California Chamber of Commerce has voted to support Proposition 84, the Clean Water and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006. The $5.4 billion state bond measure would provide critically needed funds to ensure the availability of safe drinking water, improve local water supply reliability, strengthen flood protection and preserve California's natural landscapes, including parks, lakes, rivers, beaches, bays, ocean and coastline. The Chamber also voted to oppose Proposition 90, the so called "Protect Our Homes" initiative. The measure allows virtually anyone to claim that a new law or regulation has impacted the value of their property or business-no matter how far-fetched the claim-and taxpayers will be on the hook to pay the bill.
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) recently endorsed Santa Clara County's Measure A, The Land Conservation Initiative. If approved by voters, Measure A would affect almost 400,000 acres, about half the land in Santa Clara County, reducing the number of parcels that can be developed on ranch lands and hillsides. SVLG, with more than 200 member companies, is the largest business organization in Silicon Valley. COF has long promoted the theme: Land Protection Equals Good Business.
SOD in Marin County
By Tom Gaman, a registered forester living in Inverness.
Many people have asked about their oak tree-does it have sudden oak death? I answer something like this: "Probably but perhaps not".
Phytophthora ramorum, Sudden Oak Death (SOD), has become a staple of California coastal hardwood forests since first discovered here in 1995. Today SOD extends from Big Sur to southern Oregon and 80 kilometers inland. Hillsides of dead tanbark oaks can be seen in Monterey, Santa Cruz and Humboldt Counties. In Marin it has killed coast live oaks, tanbark oaks and black oaks at China Camp. Thousands of dead tanbark oaks can be seen around Kent Lake in the upper Tomales Bay watershed. We again have clusters of mortality in Inverness this year, and probably more next year.
The fungus, one of over sixty species of the genus Phytophthora, has affected dozens of other common native woody species including California bay, madrone, buckeye, rhododendron and even redwood, Douglas-fir and many others. Though bay seems to be a primary host, the fungus is most virulent in tanbark oaks. The SOD fungus slowly penetrates, infects and then kills the inner bark tissue and spreads to the point that it eventually girdles and kills the diseased tree. The pathogen is spread via air, soil and water. It incubates in our cool moist climate and increased mortality is noticed two years after each wet winter.
According to Yana Valachovic of UC Extension SOD seems to be everywhere. After two wet winters here many madrones have just a few succulent healthy green leaves scattered among lots of dead twigs and foliage. If you look closer you will notice that many twigs, and even some larger branches, have been girdled by a stem canker. This is very likely to be SOD at work.
There is no landscape level treatment. Foresters are expecting a successional transition to more tolerant tree species-probably bay. For important healthy landscape trees in affected areas annual phosphite treatments of "Agri-fos" are thought to be effective. Agri-fos can be applied as a spray or injected by a qualified arborist. For more information please visit www.suddenoakdeath.org or www.forestdata.com.
Merchandise
Pocket Guide to Creek Birds of California. This pocket guide was a project of California Partners in Flight and PRBO Conservation Science and was funded by several organizations including COF and CWF. Eighty-eight pages, full-color pocket guide to help identify bird species of riparian habitats. New paperback, $6.00 ($5.40 members) plus local sales tax, shipping and handling.
Holiday special - this 3" x 4" gift for the holidays for only $6.00 includes tax, shipping and handling (for large quantities, please inquire).
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1212 Broadway, #842 Oakland, CA 94612 Tel. 510-763-0282
Fax: 510-268-9948 oakstaff@californiaoaks.org
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