Coast live oak with roots compromised by adjacent construction still faring well
In November 2020 I began fire mimicry treatments on several coast live oaks and Pacific madrones in Felton, CA. Last year, when I checked on these trees, they were already showing a nice improvement (see here). Now after two years nearly all of the trees are showing noticeable positive responses to the treatments, even at the height of drought conditions. Several of the oaks have undergone major stem canker surgeries, but still seem to be on the mend. Hope you enjoy these results as much as these trees.
In October of 2020 I began fire mimicry treatments on 4 coast live oaks and one black oak here in Big Sur. The above oak also received a major stem canker surgery. Yesterday I checked on the progress of the oaks at the two year mark, nearly to the minute. I’ll never tire of seeing trees get healthier!
Here’s a clip of some fire mimicry work we did today around an ancient coast live oak in Carmel Valley, CA. The focus in this first stage of fire mimicry is to remove ladder fuels and reduce the competition from nearby woody shrubs. Afterwards, we will fertilize the soils with biochar (produced from burning the slash piles), along with compost tea and alkaline-rich minerals, then apply limewash to the trunks.
Yesterday our crew of fire mimicry practitioners began treatment of an ancient oak grove in Carmel Valley, CA. The videos here show the results of clearing ladder fuels to help prevent a healthy ground fire from becoming a destructive canopy fire. The video below was cut short by an unfriendly encounter with a wasp nest, an ever-present menace along with all the poison oak.
The latest efforts here at Sudden Oak Life have involved the restoration of about 20 acres of oak woodland and native prairie habitat in the Central Coast. I have pulled together a strong team of workers who are well trained in the principles and practices of fire mimicry.
On one particular hillside young coast live oaks have been invading an adjacent prairie of native bunchgrasses dominated by California fescue. Coastal prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems in California due to fire suppression and conversion to agricultural uses. In places, the oak trees have shaded out and all but replaced the native prairie species. Our work here focused on removing many of the woody shrubs and young oaks along the prairie margin, and thinning and pruning oaks in nearby woodlands that still support substantial bunchgrass cover. Efforts were made to preserved many of the native understory species including toyon, currant, sage, and mountain mahogany. All the removed oaks were less than 6″ in diameter, per county regulations.
Here are several time-lapse videos from today showing our efforts to prepare a grove of ancient coast live oaks for reintroduction of cultural fire via fire mimicry. Notice that our focus is on removing ladder fuels in ensure that any cultural fires remain on the ground (good fire), rather than spreading into the canopies (bad fire).
These time lapse videos are of the fire mimicry work done with my coworkers over the past two days. Note how we are careful to remove the ladder fuels, so that any fires are more likely to stay on the ground (good fire), rather than spread into the canopy (bad fire). Enjoy!
Today we applied fire mimicry treatments to several Ancestor oaks in Monterey, CA. These time-lapse videos show phase 1 were we clear the woody understory, thin the young trees, and prune the lower branches to improve the health of the oaks and remove the ladder fuels to prevent a ground fire from spreading into the canopy. Tomorrow we will implement phase 2 – Compost tea, soil minerals, and limewash. Just three of us working today, but we felt into the forces of fire and got a hella lot done! Please take the time to view these videos. To me they feel cathartic.
Yesterday I checked on several coast live oaks, ponderosa pines, a coast redwood, and a southern magnolia in Palo Alto, CA that I’ve treated with fire mimicry in recent years. The work began at one site about 14 years ago and at the other site 6 years ago. The photos at the 14-year site were taken at different seasons (winter vs. summer), so they are not an optimal comparison. Also, there was considerable construction around the trees and some limb removal since the original photos were taken. Still, it appears that these trees are thriving after fire mimicry treatments. Enjoy!
Sudden Oak Life 
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