Sonoma Valley High students dig in to save oaks
Jazmine Ramirez works the dirt where some acorns would be planted Friday, Dec. 11, 2009, at the Bouverie Preserve near Glen Ellen.
KENT PORTER / The Press DemocratPublished: Friday, December 11, 2009 at 5:57 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 11, 2009 at 5:57 p.m.
Amid a light drizzle, high school students on Friday planted hundreds of acorns as part of a woodlands restoration project at the Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen.
“We are restoring a vineyard that was obviously cleared of oak woodland that was there and a spot that was also cleared for a pasture,” said Jeanne Wirka, Bouverie biologist.
Wirka said the project is an attempt to stem the loss of oak woodlands, which are disappearing at an alarming rate.
“Oak woodlands covered about an eighth of the state of California,” Wirka said. “Because they grow between the flatlands and the mountains, they ringed the San Joaquin Valley.”
However, oak habitat also is prime real estate, “it’s where people want to live, and it’s being lost at a rapid rate,” Wirka said.
Oaks are important to 350 species, from hawk and eagles to mountain lions and insects, and the oak titmouse and blue bird nest in the tree cavities.
The planting was done by 22 Sonoma Valley High School students as part of a plant sciences class.
For many, the class may be a step toward a career in agriculture, while others want to take the lessons home.
“Ever since I was little I liked to hike and be outdoors and the oak forests are very pretty, but we are losing them,” said senior Mackenzie Mackling, 17.
Mackling, whose father is a vineyard manager for Kunde Vineyards, said she is thinking about a career in agriculture.
“I’ve spent my whole life around agriculture, and I kind of enjoy it,” Mackling said.
Senior Josh Gehret, 17, said he may use the information to work his family’s 2.5-acre property.
“My mother wants to turn our home into a farm, with a little bit of grapes and herbs,” Gehret said.
Bouverie Preserve, owned by Audubon Canyon Ranch, has 90 of its 535 acres planted with several species of oaks.
The oak restoration is taking place on eight acres near the preserve estate that was built by architect David Bouverie, who donated the land to Audubon Canyon Ranch in 1979.
It is being paid for with a $493,000 grant from Caltrans as mitigation for trees felled as part of Highway 12 construction.
Audubon Canyon Ranch and the Southern Sonoma County Resource Conservation District are partners in the project.
Friday was the first day of work for the students, who planted 400 acorns, marking the locations via GPS.
They will return another time to install a drip irrigation system.
“In 10 years you’ll have something that looks like a real tree, but they won’t become adult trees for 30 to 40 years. That’s when they will start making acorns,” Wirka said.
Wirka said the trees were planted where they would thrive — Black Oaks along a swale where there is water, Blue and Coast Live Oak in dry areas and Valley Oaks where the soil is the richest.
“The Valley Oaks like the deep dark soil, they are the heritage oaks, the majestic ones,” Wirka said.
The acorns had been collected on the preserve and are from five different oak varieties and from buckeye.
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.
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