Living among the oaks in California

Roger Boddaert

Special to the Village News

What is more iconic in California than the magnificent oak trees that dot our hillsides, and anoint the surroundings of our homes?

The majestic oak trees are part of what makes our community's environment very special and have so many benefits for our lifestyle and contribute to acting as a carbon sink, taking in the bad air and putting it into the earth for climate control and expelling the good air back into the environment for us to breathe.

Our state has over 20 oak species, from San Diego County to the Oregon border, from the evergreen oaks to the deciduous oaks in the mountains and valleys throughout the state.

Can you envision what the early settlers saw as they migrated west along the wagon trails moving into the Sierra Mountains range?

As far as these early pioneers could see, they peered from the mountain range to look at a sea of oak trees out to the horizon in the west. What an experience from the barren, dusty plains of mid-America, and now the lush oak woodlands of this new frontier to explore.

Since the 1800s, we have lost over 75%t of those verdant and majestic stands of native oaks throughout California.

Today's fragmented patches of oak woods are on the frontier of new threats of being lost.

Today, our oak trees are being threatened by real estate encroachments, agricultural development, pathological fungi, and myriads of evasive bugs attacking stressed oak trees and the pattern of the ongoing drought conditions.

A natural stand of native oaks harbors over 300 species of flora and fauna and is highly diverse and rich in biodiversity. This unique habitat contains coyotes, shrunk salamanders, plants, birds, snakes, fungi, toadstools, gall, and more.

Oak gall ink was created from oak apples induced by a wasp infecting some trees. This oak ink was used in the writing of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta and used for centuries.

Here in Southern California is the rare and threatened Quercus englemani oak. The Santa Rosa Plateau, just north of Fallbrook, has the largest and most protected stand of this oak species. If you want to experience an excellent trekking outing, visit the plateau to enjoy this specialized habitat and see the Englemani oaks in a natural setting, along with vernal pools and spring wildflowers.

An ancient California live oak has been documented to be over 800 years old in Temecula at the Pechanga reservation, and tours are given once a month to visit this oak.

These are some of the diseases that are affecting oak trees.

• Sudden oak death: the most serious of all oak deaths out of all the common diseases affecting oaks.

• Armillaria root-rot: a soil-borne fungi spreads through the root system and can move in the soil from tree to tree.

• Oak wilt: this fungal pathogen will plug up the tree's internal tissues and not allow water and nutrients to pass throughout the tree.

• Internal heart-rot: when leaves or organic matter fall into the crotches of tree trunks, this can turn into a compost bin, and as the leaves start to decompose, the slimy muck can create internal decay and cause weakness and failure of the tree.

• Six spotted oak borer: this insect lays its eggs under the bark, and if attacked in heavy numbers, the tree can fail. This one insect is of great concern, and we are losing thousands of our native oaks due to this invasive bug in California.

Can you help your oak trees? Yes, but it is all about proper stewardship and management of the tree's care. It's about early intervention, caring for the oaks properly, and knowing what they like and don't like.

So, how do we cohabitate when living among this collection and care for the oaks in today's California landscapes?

Oak trees are like people, and no two are exactly alike. And with this understanding, you should care for them under the circumstances that they are growing in.

1. The canopy of oak trees is there for a reason and shades the tree's interior. Oak trees do not like to be over-pruned. I see too many oak trees that are over pruned, allowing too much sun to enter the canopy, and sun-burning can damage the tree's bark with the potential of secondary bug infestations.

2. Prune out only hazards or dead twigs and branches that pose a safety issue from the tree. Remove branches rubbing against each other that can open up wounds where insects can invade.

3. Don't overwater your oaks, but when drought prevails, some supplemental irrigation can be helpful in times of low annual rainfall like we have been experiencing in recent years.

4. Leave the falling leaves under the oak trees alone, for this is how it happens in nature, and take a lesson from her. Its natural mulch and food, plus the leaves, can cool the soil.

5. Don't plant any ornamental plants under the oaks that require abundant water to survive. Don't put a lawn around oak trees.

Trees are an investment around our homes and give us so many benefits to enjoy from the shade they provide, cleaning the air that we breathe and being homes for the birds to raise their young.

The oak is now our National Tree in America, and I assisted some years ago in making this happen through the National Arbor Day Foundation. A contest was presented to the general public through a voting campaign, and the oak tree was voted to become our new national tree.

What would this planet be without the trees that surround us daily? It's okay to hug a tree and give thanks for all they give us, so care for them properly today and into the future, for trees provide us with hope and meaning in our lives.

Roger Boddaert, The Tree Man of Fallbrook, can be reached at 760-728-4297.