From Little Acorns Summarized by Cameron L. from an LA Times article by Frederic Golden, June 4, 1998

Despite all the negative publicity about El Niño, it brought rain to the Santa Ynez Valley in Sedgwick Ranch and the benefits can be seen on the hills and fields there. About 6000 acres of acorns showed signs of life thanks the first rains in years brought by El Niño.

Claudia Tyler, a UC Santa Barbara ecologist was reported to say, "I can hardly keep count of all the seedlings." The land is a part of a study to determine why the trees will not reproduce without human intervention.

California's natural heritage is threatened without the growth of the oak. Oaks all over the state are in trouble, as a result about two dozen areas in 48 counties of California are a part of the UC Natural Reserve System.

Oaks have been chopped down to make room for industrialization for over one hundred years. Rosi Dagit, a conservation biologist for the Reserve Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains says, "We've really done a number on our oak resources." The district has been trying to restore some of the oaks in Los Angeles.

300,000 acres of oak woodland have been lost in the last fifteen years. A major reason for the depletion of the oaks is due to California's growing wine industry, vines replace trees.

Besides humans trying to mow down the oaks, they also have other problem that are in fact more serious. They are not reproducing.

When comparing recent and past aerial photos of the valley, ecologist found that almost 20% of the population of the oak are gone. They have also found that most of the oldest trees are near the end of their lives. Geographer, Frank E. Davis says, "There's simply no replacement for trees that are dying."

In other cases fungi are the cause of the decline of oaks in an area. Cattle have also been blamed for problems similar to this. Cattle eat the seedlings as they come up and don't get a chance to grow. Although this has been proven to be the case in other situations it is not in this one. Naturally, acorns face higher odds of not surviving because of the chance of being eaten.

Acorns in the past had a better chance of survival. The ecosystem was in balance and large-scale ranching did not exist. Now, they must compete with non-native grasses that here imported for cattle. The population of the predators that eat the animals that eat the acorns have declined because of out of control haunting in the past.

There are 52 sites on the ranch that are a part of an experiment to help determine the problem of the oaks. They are each about half the size of a football field and had a mature oak on it. These site were set up in pairs. One acting as the control.

After setting up the experiments, the researchers waited. After a few weeks, they surveyed the area, they discovered that almost half the acorns sprouted. It seems that the plentiful rain brought by El niño helped. This is only a start, summer will bring different conditions.

Tyler and her team know they have a long time before they can get the answers to their questions because oaks grow very slow. They are willing to wait, the oak is too important not to. According to Dagit, "Without oaks you would lose some 5,000 different kinds of insects, 58 species of reptiles and amphibian, 158 birds and 105 mammals." Their roots keep the hillsides from sliding and reduce runoff during a flood. Even died oaks provide a home for different animals.

"We're just beginning to appreciate their importance to the ecosystem," says Janet Cobb. Thanks to Cobb's organization, the Legislature has declared the first Friday of November as Native Oak day.