I recently participated on a project in Nepal in support of World Wood Day 2016, sponsored by the International Wood Culture Society. There were over 100 countries represented by the participants! Our project involved building a temple out of reworked rubble from the 2015 earthquake. Below are some images of the experience.
I just returned from a trip to England where I gave a talk at the Geological Society of London on “Biological modification of pH in the earth system”. More on that later . . . After my talk I visited Green Templeton College at Oxford University where I worked as a Visiting Fellow in 1997. Located at the college is Radcliffe Observatory, home of the Radcliffe meteorological station, which has provided weather data since 1767 and constitutes the “longest series of temperature and rainfall records for one site in Britain“. This station is (was) part of the Central England Temperature record that purports to be “the longest instrumental record of temperature in the world“. Thus, with regards to surface observations on climate, this station is one of, if not, is the most important weather station in the world. (Update – Some commenters have pointed out that this station is no longer being used in the daily CET record. Based on this it does not seem to qualify as a most important record in the world. H/T Nick Stokes) I’ve been intrigued by this station ever since I saw it in the mid 90s, and have wondered what the area was like more than 200 years ago, and how the subsequent urbanization has affected those weather records.
When I arrived at the college I was a bit horrified to see this . . .
How do you suppose this affects the temperature readings? The warm exhaust air from the heater is located about 20 feet from the temperature sensor. The porter said it was a temporary structure that was set up every so often. I was unable to consult with the weather observer about how this situation came about or whether any corrections are being made to the data.
In the same area as the oaks I reported on in the previous post, I also inspected some ponderosa pine trees that have received fire mimicry treatment. These are photos of the pines after 5 years of treatment. While the responses of the pines are not as dramatic as seen in the nearby oaks, there is a noticeable improvement in canopy density of the pines. For comparison, the last photo set shown is of an untreated pine.
I’ve just returned from a visit to Santa Barbara where I am working on a number of properties with sick oaks. I’m not sure very many people are aware, but many of the coast live oaks in Santa Barbara are suffering. I’ve inspected dozens of properties in Santa Barbara and Montecito and in almost every case I’ve found one or more coast live oaks that are infected with bleeding stem cankers. Often associated with this stem canker disease (which exhibits symptoms similar to Phytophthora infections) are a variety of fungal pathogens (e.g. Hypoxylon) and insect pests (e.g. oak bark beetles). The sad thing is that the trees which are most affected by this decline are the large, centuries-old heritage oaks.
Of course, while these diseases and pests are clearly involved in the final demise of the oaks, they are not the real problem. Decades of fire suppression in these fire-adapted oak ecosystems has led to nutrient deficiency in the soils, declining canopy cover, a buildup of acidifying mosses and lichens, and bark deterioration.
For the past several years I have been using fire mimicry techniques to help the oaks in the Santa Barbara area. Today I would like to show the results on three large oaks I’ve been treating on a property in Montecito. As you can see in the photos above and below that two of the three oaks have responded quite nicely to the fire mimicry work. However, one severely diseased oak did not make it. I estimated that this oak was at least 200 years old when it died. Read the rest of this entry »
Sunset at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur. Photo by Sonya Klinger.
February 2011 in Big Sur was typically wet. There were nine precipitation events totaling 5.75”. Readings were taken for eight events and the results are reported below. Read the rest of this entry »
Sunset in Big Sur. Photo by Lee Klinger
January 2011 in Big Sur was relatively dry and mild. There were only three precipitation events totaling 1.83”. Readings were taken for two events and the results are reported below. Read the rest of this entry »
The last couple months have been full of productive but grueling work tending oaks and restoring native trees and soils. I appreciate readers’ patience while I’m off working in the forests and unable to blog. Remember, if I’m not blogging that’s usually good news for the trees. Hopefully the coming rainy season will give me some respite from work and allow me time to share more results.
Speaking of the rainy season, it has begun here in Big Sur and I’ve measurements already from two (small) storm events. Watch for the October rainfall pH data in a post in early November.
My good friend Kevin Feinstein has a recent post on the masting behavior (production of bumper crops of acorns) of valley oaks. He notes that this year there has been very few (“virtually none”) acorns produced by valley oaks across the region. My observation is the same, that this is not a “mast” year. He also has some interesting observations on the frequency of valley oak masting events over the past 7 years. Please check out this and other posts at FeralKevin.com.
Another good friend, photographer Jack Gescheidt who took the photo below, writes me to say:
Here before the prophets
Acid rainbow in Big Sur (photo by Lee Klinger)
Big Sur rainfall and pH data have been tabulated for January 2010 and the numbers are as follows:
Rainfall amounts and pH in Big Sur
I’m noticing that when the storms are particularly windy the rainfall pH seems to be higher (less acidic) than other rainstorms with less wind. I don’t have any data to verify this, but it’s something I plan to pay more attention to in the future. Could this be due to all the particles blown off the surrounding trees? Or from sea spray? Dunno.
Still, the majority of the rainfall events here in Big Sur are acidic as they have been for several years (see here, here, and here) and folks should be wondering why . . .
Yesterday there was an interview about my work with the trees on Sustainable World Radio. Here is the podcast:
http://www.pdcastsusworldradio.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=517650
I haven’t listened to it yet, but after I do I will post comments as needed.
Heritage valley oak in Lake County (photo by Lee Klinger)
Sudden Oak Life by Lee Klinger 
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