Happy Earth Day 2018!

Happy Earth Day from Sudden Oak Life! A hopeful message from the oaks . . .

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Declining oaks in Marin respond to fire mimicry

As you may know many of the coast live oaks in Marin County, California are in severe decline. Here are examples of two oaks in Marin County, one in Mill Valley and the other in Larkspur, which were seriously ill upon my initial inspection. The oak in Larkspur was infected with a stem canker disease (probably Sudden Oak Death). Both trees have received fire mimicry treatments for several years, and the owners are pretty happy with the results.

With all the talk of exotic diseases, insect pests, and climate change being the main culprits of forest decline in California and elsewhere, here I show evidence that the real problem is that we are no longer tending our trees. In the words of M. Kat Anderson – “nature misses us”. Solutions are at hand, and they are not difficult to implement.