Improvement seen in pine health with fire mimicry

I’m often asked whether the fire mimicry techniques that have been so successful in oak restoration work on other trees. Given that many California native tree species are fire-adapted there is every reason to believe that fire mimicry could help them too. Indeed, I have several previous posts showing positive responses of a variety of non-oak species to fire mimicry treatments, including buckeyes, redwoods, and Douglas firs.

Today I would like to share some recent results with pine trees. California pines are also fire-adapted, and with the suppression of forest fires, are becoming ill and infected with bark beetles and pitch pine canker. Thus, fire mimicry treatments seem to be critical in helping sick pines and in keeping healthy pines from deteriorating.

The four-year results shown below are of a sick Monterey pine in Carmel, the two-year results are of mostly healthy ponderosa pines in Glen Ellen, and the one-year results are of mostly healthy Monterey pines in Mill Valley.

A word about the four-year results. I first treated this Monterey pine in 2008 when the owners observed some decline in the tree. On my return the following year I found the pine to have deteriorated slightly. By the second year it had deteriorated significantly. I was mystified since the nearby oaks I had treated were responding nicely. Pines have an extensive root system, so I decided to peek over the neighbor’s fence and was surprised to find the entire yard was a Japanese garden with a mat of mosses forming a solid carpet on the ground. While mosses serve a purpose in a Japanese garden by stunting growth, creating twisted forms, and stimulating unusual foliage coloration in the small trees and acid-tolerant shrubs, a heavy moss cover is not compatible with a nearby large, fast-growing pine.

I was able to get permission from the neighbor to treat the soils, but I could not spread minerals on the soils as that would likely damage much of the moss cover, thus, ruining the aesthetics of their garden. So, instead, I did a deep root feeding by drilling small holes through the moss mat and injecting the minerals into the subsoil. These treatments were done in 2010 and again in 2011. The photos below show that after two years the pine has made a nice recovery.

Sudden Oak Life workshops – March & April 2012

For those who are interested in learning about the latest science and findings regarding the use of fire mimicry techniques to address issues of oak health, you are welcome to attend one of these upcoming workshops in the Bay area:

Thursday, March 29, 2012 – 7 to 10 pm – Oakland, CA. More info here: http://www.facebook.com/events/364998010207151/

Tuesday, April 3, 2012 – 5 to 7 pm – Mountain View, CA. More info here: http://www.builditgreen.org/en/cev/463

Saturday, April 28, 2012 – 1:30 to 3 pm – Redwood City, CA. More info here: http://www.lyngsogarden.com/index.cfm?event=Event.Details.Page&EventId=71078

Please feel welcome to come learn and participate in these discussions.

 

Sick oaks require more than a single treatment

Last week I examined and re-photographed a hillside of sick oaks in Toro Canyon, near Santa Barbara, that received fire mimicry treatment in January of 2009. By January of 2010 the oaks were responding very well (see Toro Canyon oaks). Due to the good results the property owner decided to hold off on additional treatments, despite my recommendations to treat the oaks again.

The results below indicate that the oaks showed very good improvement up to two years following the treatment, but by the third year, many of the oaks began showing a marked decline in health, due, I believe, to the lack of any follow up treatments. As can be seen in the photos, the oaks after three years are still notably healthier than they were initially, but many have shown a decline in canopy health compared to one year ago. Other property owners have similarly been fooled into thinking that, given the good initial response of their trees, further treatments were no longer necessary.

The lesson here is that a single fire mimicry treatment is not sufficient to reverse the many years of poor soil fertility and oak health.

Santa Barbara oak restoration with fire mimicry

Last week I visited Santa Barbara to check on a large stand of oaks undergoing restoration using fire mimicry. The oaks first received the treatments three years ago. Below are the results.

Please feel free to share these and the many other results posted on this blog with friends and neighbors who care about their oaks, and who do not wish to use toxic fungicides and pesticides.

Acid rain in Big Sur – December 2011

Marine haze in Big Sur. Photo by Lee Klinger.

December 2011 was a dry month. I recorded only two precipitation events totaling 0.75″ of rain. Only one event provided an amount that could be measured for pH. That occurred on December 12 with a pH of 4.67, which is close to the mean pH of the 2010-2011 rainy season (pH = 4.66). See the table below for the December 2011 data:

Rainfall amount and pH recorded in Big Sur for December 2011

During the warm sunny days of December a thick marine haze developed that engulfed the region for many weeks (see photo above). This haze has been shown on other studies to be comprised largely of sulfate and organic aerosols, the precursors to biogenic (i.e. natural) acid rain.

Santa Barbara oaks after two and three years of fire mimicry

Last week I visited some oaks in Santa Barbara which have been undergoing fire mimicry treatments, some for two years, others for three years. Below are the results, unedited at usual.

Three year results:

Hearst Castle oaks survive wind storm

Last month (on December 1, 2011) severe Santa Ana winds blew through the central coast of California downing and damaging thousands of trees. At Hearst Castle, winds were recorded in excess of 70 miles an hour. Fortunately, none of the oaks involved in the case studies being conducted at Hearst Castle were lost, though several lost some limbs and many leaves were blown off the canopies. Despite the high winds, a number of the oaks are still showing marked improvement over the six years of records following initial treatment with fire mimicry methods. The photos below fairly show the improvement in some oaks, as well as the oaks damaged by the high winds.

For previous years results from Hearst Castle see Sudden Oak Life posts here and here.

I have prescribed an enhanced level of treatments for these oaks in the coming year, and we will see next year whether or not the oaks have recovered from this wind event.

Note, the first four sets of photos show, alternately, treated vs. untreated oaks.

Treated:

Untreated: