Don,
I second the call for more of these wonderful trip reports. It is refreshing to see California described with all its scenic variety. Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "DON BERTOLETTE" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 10:35:32 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: RE: [ENTS] California Oaks / Engelmann oak #1 Doug- Excellent 'addendum'! In many ways California is a botanist's paradise, ranging east/west from coastal environment to a coastal mountain range, across a huge central valley, across the Sierra Nevadas in a gradual continuous incline, then down abruptly across the Sierra Nevada escarpment, across the Owens River Valley and back up to several more moutain ranges to gradually shift to a desert environment. And that's just the short width of the state. With a 700 mile length, the vegetation zones one would encounter on pretty much ANY N/S tangent, is mind boggling. Enough already! What I started to say was I too very much like oak savannahs...the coast has them and they're very much Mediterranean, but the central valley has them too...at the bottom of the San Joaquin Valley, between Lebec and Tehachapi, is a oak savannah zone that I was priveliged to work in, as a rodman/chainman on a survey crew, re-establishing section lines. A lunch time adventure comes to mind, when in returning to our work truck which we'd parked in the shade of an old oak (I was 17, didn't know one from another), I went to step over what I thought was a large oak branch that had fallen off the tree, to discover it was an 80 inch long rattlesnake...making one of those adrenalin inspired leaps in mid-step, my sudden move alerted my party chief who shortly dispatched the snake with his birdshot loaded Ruger 22 pistol...I don't kill snakes unless it's pretty much fang to fang, but him being my boss then, I was an accomplice, I suppose. Had it for lunch the next day, and was gifted the skin, which I mounted on an 8 foot by 12" wide board...the snake skin took almost all of it up, once properly dried. Because the Central Valley of California is like a large lake that could have flowed out of the San Francisco Bay, there is a elevantional band the runs up both sides of the valley all the way to Redding and beyond (probably some 400 miles) that is oak savanna...a GIS vegetation community map would have one color running a circle around 90% of the valley. As the latitude changes, the species of oaks change, but their savannah nature doesn't. Keep up the great trip reports! -Don > Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 19:12:11 -0800 > From: [email protected] > Subject: [ENTS] California Oaks / Engelmann oak #1 > To: [email protected]; [email protected] > > WNTS/ENTS, > > in my last post I wrote about the coast live oaks of the Santa Rosa Plateau > Ecological Reserve. Well, my real reason for going there, other than the > beautiful scenery, was to visit the very best Engelmann oak savanna in the > world...or at least the best public place. Engelmann oak is one of the rarest > oaks in California and oak savanna is one of my favorite landscapes so this > park was very high on my list of places to visit in California. Engelmann oak > is one of the four trees in the White Oak group in California. > > The first picture shows a coast live oak between Engelmann oaks. The grayish > green leaves of the Engelmann oaks stand out next to the dark green leaves of > the coast live oak. These were the only two tree oak species in the park. > > The second picture is a closeup of the leaves and acorns of an Engelmann oak. > This species really has a Mediterranean look to it; kinda like an overgrown > olive tree or something. > > Image #3 A closeup of backlit leaves. > > Image #4 Another shot showing an Engelmann oak on the left and a coast live > oak on the right (I think). Ellen is on a bench next to two more Engelmann > oaks in the background. > > Image #5 A closer picture of Ellen and the two Engelmann oaks. > > Doug > > > > > -- > Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org > Send email to [email protected] > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en > To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] Windows LiveT Hotmail is faster and more secure than ever. Learn more. -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
