Posts Tagged: oaks

Plants are feeling the 2008 drought

The first indicator cited in a San Jose Mercury-News story about the 2008 drought is the number of phone calls coming into the local UC Cooperative Extension office.

The second paragraph of the article says the "unusual number of calls" are from people asking why their camphor trees and liquid ambars are wilting.

"This year we've had so little rain that for trees that are not adapted — and even those that are — there is simply no moisture in the ground except for (what) we are applying," the Mercury-News quoted Bethallyn Black, UCCE urban horticulture advisor in Contra Costa County.

She said some areas have even less water in the ground because the water table has fallen below the reach of trees whose roots have not adapted to a Mediterranean climate, according to the article.

The Mercury-News article, written by Rowena Coetsee, runs parallel to a press release distributed by the UCCE News and Information Outreach office last week that noted native blue oak trees in foothill areas are losing their leaves and turning color way before normal.

According to UCCE oak specialist Douglas McCreary, the ability to shed foliage early is a survival mechanism of the native trees. When faced with low soil moisture, the trees can either keep their foliage and continue losing water through leaf pores, or drop their leaves and conserve moisture. In the long term, shedding leaves keeps the trees from drying out completely and dying.

Native blue oak trees.

UCCE advisor's media relations may save lives

UC Berkeley Cooperative Extension natural resources specialist Doug McCreary knew it was a matter of life or death . . . . This spring, landowners were wondering whether they should yank out oak trees that were uncharacteristically brown or bare.

McCreary took quick action to save trees' lives. He gathered information for a news release assuring people the die-back was probably not a sign of Sudden Oak Death and urging them to wait at least a year before pulling out trees. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and run in several Northern California newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News.

The AP article included McCreary's points that many oaks in the Sierra foothills and along the North Coast have been left leafless this spring because of a cold snap, not disease. Most trees should recover.

Meg McConahey of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat called McCreary to localize the story. Her article said landowners and forest stewards on the North Coast are particularly sensitive to oak health because of the devastating spread of SOD. "Sonoma is by far the hardest hit of 14 counties now under state quarantine in California," the article said.

Oak tree damaged by spring frost.

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