The 8th California Oak Symposium is scheduled to be held March 22-25, 2021, at Embassy Suites, San Luis Obispo. The theme for the conference is “Sustaining Oak Woodlands Under Current and Future Conditions.” 

Presented by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the 8th California Oak Symposium is intended for anyone involved in research, education, management and conservation of California's oak woodlands. Participants may include foresters, range managers, tribes, arborists, landowners, community groups, land trusts and policymakers.

UC ANR colleagues are invited to share their oak-related work. To propose an oral presentation or poster for consideration, please submit an abstract at http://ucanr.edu/8thoakabstracts by Aug. 10.

View the symposium agenda at http://ucanr.edu/files/331101.docx. 

A Symposium Planning Committee and the UC ANR Program Support Unit are organizing the symposium and monitoring the new coronavirus (COVID-19) conditions so conference details may change.

“We will go virtual if COVID-19 regulations are still in place in March,” said Bill Tietje, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and chair of the planning committee.

Registration will open in the fall. For more information, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/oaksymposium or contact Tietje at tietje@berkeley.edu.

 

 

Oak trees are iconic in California's landscape. Just about anything you would like to know about caring for the state's 8 million acres of oak woodlands is now accessible to the public online. University of California Cooperative Extension scientists have updated the UC Oaks website at https://oaks.cnr.berkeley.edu with oak ecology, management and oak woodland conservation information based on over 30 years of research.

“On the home page, we have highlighted oak topics – such as oak planting, oak ecology and rangeland management – that have been of special interest to website users,” said Bill Tietje, UC Cooperative Extension natural resources specialist at UC Berkeley, based in San Luis Obispo.

About 80% of the oak woodlands in California are privately owned, with the majority used for grazing, primarily by beef cattle.

“We added some of the latest UC oak research and plan to promote the website to groups who have not historically used it, in particular, the ranching community,” said Devii Rao, UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor for San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. “It is essential that landowners and managers have the tools they need to maintain healthy trees and conserve large-scale oak woodlands.”

Development policy, livestock management on rangelands, urban oak care, oak regeneration, effects of wildfire on oaks, wildlife and threats to oak woodlands are featured on the website.

Since its creation in 1995 by emeritus UC Cooperative Extension specialist Rick Standiford, the website, originally called UC Oak Woodland Management, has been a valuable educational resource, with an average of 45,000 visitors annually.

Updating and redesigning the website for mobile devices was funded by a Renewable Resources Extension Act Capacity Grant received by Tietje, Rao and Luke Macaulay, UC Cooperative Extension specialist rangeland planning and policy specialist at UC Berkeley. They worked with a professional designer to improve the website's functionality and visual appeal, and will continue to add new information.  

To increase user friendliness, the UCCE team created links at the top of the UC Oaks home page for its three primary target audiences: homeowners, land-use planners and ranchers.

If you can't find an answer, click the “Ask an Oak Expert” button to submit your question and a UCCE oak expert will reply. 

“With its new look and expanded reach, we hope that the website will be a one-stop shop for everything people need to know about oak woodland conservation and management,” said Rao, who manages the website.

Descriptions of California's Central Coast often include terms like beautiful, bucolic and idyllic. These elated opinions are understandable. The region is blessed with a varied topography, pleasant climate, spectacular views, and a splendid array of natural ecosystems. So whether you are interested in rare and endangered species such as the California condor, or the species diversity found in tide pools or oak woodlands, the California Central Coast is a great place to begin your tour.

To assist in the understanding of the Central Coast's exceptional ecological diversity, a new UC publication, Natural History of the Central Coast Bioregion, was published recently. The authors of the publication have rendered the environmental complexity of this fascinating region into a concise, integrated and enjoyable account.

It's a reader's digest and road map designed to stimulate and educate the curious to learn more and to become actively engaged in sustaining the region's biological legacy. The narrative is supported with several diagrams and maps and 65 photographs. Additionally, the work is laced with 12 vignettes that provide attention and detail to noteworthy topics. Eleven of these include renditions of historical figures and events, animal and plant ecology, environmental challenges, and conservation measures (examples include uplifting stories about condors, elephant seals, the Carmel River, and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary). The 12th and final vignette consists of a map accompanied by short descriptions of fascinating places to visit that are particularly expressive of the bioregion's natural and cultural history.

Those interested in a substantive, yet readable portrayal of the natural history of the Central Coast need look no further. A free download is available from the online UC ANR Catalog https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/Details.aspx?itemNo=8597.

Education programs for interested public and students on the Central Coast's natural history are offered at many of the locations discussed in the Central Coast bioregion publication. Examples include the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The aquarium hosts a Discovery Lab where visiting students receive hands-on instruction on many of today's environmental challenges.

The Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program in Watsonville offers science-based information on Central Coast flora and fauna, and issues involving coastal watersheds. Sept. 20-22, 2019, the Elkhorn Slough Reserve will host the Monterey Bay Birding Festival. The festival features a variety of birding tours and workshops that will be held at the reserve, Big Sur, and Pinnacles National Park. Lessons on bird photography and bird carving are available. For complete descriptions of field trips and workshops and to register the Monterey Bay Birding Festival website.

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden hosts UC's California Naturalist Program. CalNat instructs citizen scientists on the natural history and conservation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats. There are upcoming California Naturalist courses at the three CalNat partner organizations in the Central Coast Bioregion: Cuesta College, Camp Ocean Pines, and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. For certification, Natural History of the Central Coast Bioregion is a required reading. As a certified California Naturalist, you will provide voluntary service that helps to sustain Central Coast biodiversity. To learn more, visit http://calnat.ucanr.edu/.

Californians love their oak trees. During vineyard development, Central Coast grape growers often feel compelled to leave an old iconic oak standing, even if it ends up right in the middle of their vineyard. While driving through the Central Coast, it's not unusual to see the pattern of vineyard rows broken by a majestic oak tree. Aside from their beauty, what are some of the ecosystem services that these majestic trees provide?

To find answers, a UC Cooperative Extension scientist in San Luis Obispo County collaborated with a U.S. Forest Service scientist to study how bats use blue oak and valley oak trees in vineyards. UC Cooperative Extension specialist Bill Tietje, a co-author of the study, says they focused on bats that eat insects because bat populations have declined dramatically in some areas due to habitat loss and disease. “And bats don't hurt grapes. As a matter of fact, thanks to the huge number of bugs they consume—bats could be very good for a vineyard.”

To understand the potential value of remnant oak trees for insectivorous bats, the researchers placed microphones to detect bat calls within 14 Central Coast vineyards. The recordings revealed 11 species of insectivorous bats foraged within the vineyards and bat foraging activity was 1.5 times greater at the trees compared to open, tree-less areas within the vineyard. And the bigger the tree, the bigger the number of bats it attracted.

“The study results suggest that the large oak tree in my vineyard not only increases the beauty and biodiversity of the agricultural landscape, but also attracts insect-eating bats that can provide natural pest control—a win-win,” said grape grower Jerry Reaugh, who cooperated with the researchers.

In fact, the presence of insectivorous bats called woodland-adapted bats more than doubled within the vineyards with trees. The study indicates that the oak trees attracted woodland-adapted bats that would normally be absent from vineyards. 

Tietje hopes that the free insect-reduction services provided by bats will increase grape growers' incentive to manage and maintain the trees, and even to plant new oak trees in suitable areas around their vineyard, in mutual benefit to both agriculture and biodiversity.

“In addition to their value for insectivorous bats, remnant trees maintain bird and insect diversity by providing food, habitat, cover and stepping stones that facilitate the movement of wildlife within agricultural landscapes,” said Tietje.

This study comes at a time when declining blue oak and valley oak populations are of great concern.

“We hope the study will increase awareness of these beautiful and beneficial trees and make the case for conservation and restoration,” Tietje said. “Preserving and enhancing biodiversity in the midst of climate change is key to ensuring resilience in our landscapes and communities.” 

The study by University of Washington graduate student Anne Polyakov, Theodore Weller of USDA Forest Service and Tietje is published in the September 2019 edition of Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.