Sudden Oak Life by Lee Klinger

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.