For the first time since 1980, Los Angeles County is revising its general development plan in order to not only save but increase areas of oak woodlands.
Recent studies have shown that oak woodlands mitigate fire damage, stop excessive flooding, prevent erosion and help control air pollution. In addition to these crucial services, oaks are giant reservoirs of carbon dioxide. Each time an oak, or any tree is cut down the CO2 that would have been sequestered by that tree is released into the atmosphere and then contributes to climate change.
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In order to ensure that this important resource is not lost, the Oak Woodland Habitat Conservation Strategic Alliance, led by conservation biologist, Rosi Dagit, is developing an L.A. County Oak Woodland Conservation Management Plan. The timing of this plan is critical. If a well thought out and organized oak woodland management strategy is presented, it could be incorporated into L.A.'s general plan.
At 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 19, a community meeting was held at the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. Unlike other community meetings the focus was not about a community of people, but rather about a community of trees. The meeting brought together members from National Park Service, L.A. County Forestry, Santa Susana Mountain Park Association, California Native Plant Society, L.A. County Regional Planning and local concerned citizens.
The meeting began with an invitation to participate in a collaborative effort to save and restore California's native oak woodlands. Dagit followed with a thorough and intriguing history of oaks in California: Having evolved 45 million years ago, the oaks have seen many changes in this landscape including dramatic climate change. Only 10-40,000 years ago, Los Angeles County was considerably moister, more like Monterey County. However, our present day climate is drier and more arid. But even with this change our native plant species, including the oaks, are adapting. Unfortunately, due to rapid development and mismanagement of resources, oak woodlands have dwindled.
For thousands of years humans lived in collaboration with the oak woodlands. The Tongva and Chumash, native cultures of what now makes up L.A. County, once actively managed the oaks to attain a higher yield of acorns. On average, people ate three pounds of acorns per day, making the trees an essential food source. Oak woodlands were so vital that they were passed down through family lineages. But beyond their intrinsic value to human survival, oak trees also proved to be an ecological keystone species, supporting thousands of native plants, more than five hundred species of invertebrates and hundreds of vertebrates.
As European settlers replaced native people, oak trees remained important. Along with water rights, oak trees and woodlands were listed on land grants because of their worth in respect to shade for grazing animals and firewood. But as settlers continued to move into the L.A. area, fragmentation of these oak woodlands began. People cut trees down for housing, grazing and farming. This fragmentation continued through most of the 1900s and during the population boom of 1980-1990. (These 10 years exceeded the L.A. density plan by 300 percent.) Only recently has fragmentation begun to recede as humans again begin to understand the oak woodlands as an essential resource for the health of Southern California.
The Oak Woodland Conservation Management Plan is designed to:
• Preserve southern California's vital and rapidly shrinking oak woodlands.
• Create a vision of what oak woodland resources in Los Angeles County will look like in 50 years.
• Balance the regulatory elements of the existing Oak Tree Protection Ordinance with incentives to encourage voluntary conservation and expansion of oak woodlands.
• Allow access to the State of California oak woodland conservation fund to encourage preservation and expansion of oak woodlands.
• Facilitate uniform evaluation of land development projects' impacts on oak woodlands.
• Educate the public about the many benefits derived from healthy oak woodlands.
• Provide guidance for balancing the long-term housing needs of the County with conservation and enhancement of oak woodlands.
In order to implement these goals, the Alliance is holding additional public meetings around L.A. County through December, 2009. Each meeting, as the one held on November 19, encourages public participation ensuring that the plan considers not only the needs of the woodlands but also the concerns of L.A. citizens. The Alliance is asking hard questions and is open to alternative and creative solutions. One aspect of the plan offers different incentives, such as construction easements, tax credits, or transfer of development rights to citizens who have nurtured the health of oak woodlands on their private property.
In line with the theme of health and sustainability, the Alliance is working to educate people to look at oak woodlands and its many components holistically rather than singling out an individual tree. In saving or restoring the woodlands, one cannot just look at a tree or even a single land parcel; the watershed and then the regional perspective must be considered.
With these noble, yet essential and feasible goals, the Alliance must complete the plan by February 25 in order to incorporate it into L.A.'s general plan. The Alliance understands the necessity of human collaboration for this strategy to work and encourages comments and feedback. For information please visit: www.lacountyoakwoodlandplan.org.
