Sudden Oak Life by Lee Klinger

In November of 2013 I met with a property owner in Redwood City, CA who had some rather sick coast live oak trees. His wife had alerted him my work with fire mimicry and he was interested, though quite skeptical, of my approach to helping oaks. I provided a report of my findings and recommendations, and he responded with a number of good questions, showing me that he had done his homework on the subject. In the end he opted to try my approach, noting that his decision was swayed by the fact that the mineral and compost fertilizers I apply are all natural, non-toxic compounds typically used in organic agriculture.

One year later, in November of 2014, we met again as I did my annual inspection his treated oaks. Even before I had time to re-photograph the trees he admitted he had seen significant improvement in several oaks, and was no longer a skeptic of my work.

Bear in mind that these photos show the treated oaks after only one year’s time. A few oaks show no noticeable improvement in canopy density or greenness, nor do they show any noticeable decline. Other oaks have responded with clear improvement in canopy density and greenness.

Needless to say, the owner opted to treat his oaks again, and we’ll see their response again next year . . .

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In 2010 I began fire mimicry treatments on a grove of coast live oaks in Woodside, CA, which are at risk of Sudden Oak Death. Here are the results after four years. None of the oaks has contracted disease, and their canopies are clearly showing an increase in size, greenness, and density. Some light pruning occurred in 2011.

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Thank you readers for your patience during the extended quiet time here on my blog in 2014. This year started off with the challenge of recovering from the loss of my home during the Big Sur fire in December 2013, where many of my friends and neighbors also lost their homes. Fortunately, with the generous help of the Big Sur community, family, and friends I’ve been able to set up a new home and am back doing my forest restoration work.

There are many results from the past year that I plan to show in coming posts in 2015. Let me start with a milestone, the first 10-year results of fire mimicry methods employed on oaks that I have documented. These results come from Fairfax, CA and much of the credit goes to Leith Carstarphen who has been applying the methods I showed him 10 years ago on the coast live oaks below.

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Five years ago I began fire mimicry treatments on these coast live oaks in Carmel, CA. Last week I checked on the oaks and re-photographed them. Here are the results:

Three years ago I began fire mimicry treatments on a number of coast live oaks and valley oaks near Glen Ellen, in Sonoma County, CA. I recently did my annual checkup on these oaks and re-photographed them to assess their response. 

Here are the results.

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Last year I began restoration work using fire mimicry on a stand of oaks in Hillsborough, CA. I did some clearing of woody understory and moss removal from the trunks, and added alkaline-rich minerals and compost tea to the soils. I also applied a lime spray to the trunks.

Here are the results after just one year.

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