Sudden Oak Life by Lee Klinger

There’s a special place near Monterey that is an oak lover’s dream – over 600 acres of undeveloped, intact old-growth oak forest and savanna, never burned, that I’ve been commissioned to tend. In 2022 I surveyed about 25% of the property and identified over 200 ancient, culturally-modified coast live oaks (“ancestor” oaks) that date from the time when the Rumsen-Ohlone Indians were the sole human occupants of the land (> 300 years old). Every one of these oaks is a living cultural artifact of the Rumsen-Ohlone People. I’m guessing there may be nearly 1000 “ancestor” oaks on the property, many of which are over 500 years old. Thus, I refer to this place as “The Old Oaks Home”.

These ancient oaks are in a precarious situation. Given that fires have not burned here in well over 100 years, the forests are now overcrowded with young oaks and the grassland savannas have been mostly replaced by chaparral. A single spark could end the lives of hundreds of these ancient beings in just a day or two. So far, luck has been on the side of these elders, but their luck is running out for every year we postpone care.

In lieu of fire, I have been applying fire mimicry treatments to several of the ancestor oaks over the past couple years and am seeing a significant improvement in the density and lushness of the canopies of these trees. The above and below photos show the treated oaks today, compared to their appearance two years ago. Enjoy!