While on my way to check on the oaks in the previous post, I happened upon another client whose oaks I treated with fire mimicry last September. I stopped to say “Hi” and mentioned that I would return in September for the one-year checkup, but he was anxious to see how his oaks were doing yesterday, so I took the time to re-photogrpah his oaks, Here are the results after 10 months . . .
Yesterday, in Fairfax, CA, I examined a number of coast live oaks that I treated with fire mimicry for the first time in July of last year. The first tree I examined was a a large oak that was severely diseased and near death last year. I told the owner that I did not think it could be saved, but he insisted I try. As you can see in the above photo my attempts to save the tree were unsuccessful. The oak came down in a storm this past January.
Fortunately, the owner had me treat his other oaks, some of which are infected with stem canker disease (probably Sudden Oak Death). As you can see in the following photos, all are showing noticeable improvement in just one year. I’m happy to attribute some of this success to the plentiful rains this past winter, however, considering I’ve gotten similar results at the height of the recent drought (see Archives 2013 – 2016), I’m certain that the fire mimicry treatments are assisting in the recovery of these oaks.
Two years ago a property owner in Piedmont, CA contacted me about the declining health of their oaks. When I inspected the trees I found a couple of them had stem canker infections (possibly Sudden Oak Death), including the oak pictured above. Most of the oaks were free of infections, but still showed signs of poor health. Now after two treatments using fire mimicry, the oaks, generally, are showing a noticeable improvement in canopy health and density. Note that the photos are not exactly two years apart, but when I re-photograph the oaks again in October I’m betting that the trees will not have lost much, if any, vigor.
Sudden Oak Life 
Recent Comments