Yesterday, the San Luis Obispo Tribune ran last week's McClatchy story about oaks (which I covered in this blog), and localized it for their own area by calling on another UC Cooperative Extension souce.
UCCE area natural resources specialist Bill Tietje told reporter David Sneed that oak regeneration conditions in San Luis Obispo County are the same as Northern California, according to the story. Most oak woodlands in the state contain large, mature trees, but no saplings to replace them. Young oaks fail for a variety of reasons.
"Many times . . . natural or human influences are involved that tip the scale the wrong way, including very dry conditions, large numbers of grazers — native and livestock — non-native grasses that compete with seedlings for water or compacted soil,” Tietje was quoted.
The best way to make sure that oaks regenerate on a given piece of property, he explained, is to gather acorns in the fall, plant them in the winter and water and protect them. Oak seedlings can also be purchased.
Tietje told the reporter about ongoing research at five California sites exploring ways to protect natural seedlings.
“A successful and cheap technique to promote the growth to sapling stage of naturally regenerating oak seeds would go a long way toward ensuring that California oak woodlands could successfully regenerate themselves,” Tietje is quoted in the article.
