In my humble opinion there is a need to inspire people to plant trees, develop a culture of care towards the environment and make them realize their inevitable dependence on nature.
Need to urgently setup and establish a Project Mission :
The project mission should be to increase the green cover of CA by 20% in order to reverse desertification, reduce soil erosion, restore self-sufficiency, recreate sustainability and counteract climate change.
My Dad was a Forester for CDF (CalFire Now). He ran one of the now closed State nurseries for 30 plus years. When he retired they were rolling out about 17 million bare root stock trees a year. The people that worked in the nursery program were years before their time. In the States wisdom, they closed all of the nurseries.
I agree with you Raj. Your Project Mission is right on…
In places like Paradise, we really need to focus on oak restoration. Fire suppression has caused conifers to become much more dominant, with resulting increase in flammability. Black oak are a lot less prone to crown fire, and are a huge food source for just about every critter, including the two-leggeds.
How can this idea gain wider acceptance so it translates into action?. Planting the idea in people’s heads will be next big challenge?. I believe once the initial resistance is overcome it will be difficult to stop them from planting trees.
Black oaks…are those " native" to that area? Granted they are present but if mother nature wanted it to be a dominant species…well, that would be the case. Last time I checked black oaks cannot complete with the canopy reach of 200’ pondos,cedars, Jefferies and cedars. I believe the “ologists” call areas that are dominated by large black oaks, " oak Savannah", like is found on the srf, South fork ridge area. The oaks grow on aspect specific as well.
Lastly,in the areas where there was crown consumption in the Camp scar, oaks we’re consumed just the same as conifer, and man-made objects. To note, yes there were areas where there were crowns consumed, but a majority of that was from the BTU release adjacent to structures.
Fuels treatment is one thing…fuels modification is a different animal( if even possible)
Lastly, when magalia nursery was in service, I only remember conifer stock, not hardwoods… Hint hint.
Black Oaks are native to much of Paradise. Our property was at 1300’ and we had 23 huge to large black oaks, 1 large blue oak, 3 cedars, 2 ponderosa pines, 2 douglas firs that were probably planted by previous owners, and one enormous digger pine on a little less than an acre. Oak was definitely naturally dominant in the lower elevations of Paradise.
I don’t think it is a good idea to change the type of vegetation for a certain area? It is there for a reason! Putting back native vegetation that belongs in that area is a better way of thinking.
Conifers is what I can remember for Megalia Nursery. Does not mean that hardwoods can’t be grown? I heard there was some talk a few years back to try growing some hardwoods (specifically oaks) at the closed Ben Lomand nursery? I guess it was not important? They never did it!