I'm going to go all Jackie Gleason on the next person I hear say that oaks are slow growing. Take a look at this. Keep in mind this is from a discussion board & web site dedicated to deer hunting and creating deer habitat, and you have guys waxing rhapsodic about the growth rate of their oaks (more about Concordia oaks coming soon) and talking about cutting scion wood for grafting. I love it!!
So to beat my two favorite dead horses yet again...
1) Oaks are capable of astounding, jaw-dropping growth. Why does this matter? Because people need to view oaks as food - not just for deer but for healthy-meat-producing livestock and for people. They won't do that as long as they labor under the popular poetic misconception of oaks symbolizing slow-growing longevity.
2) Our hunting quarry eat better - and smarter - than we do. We plant oaks to feed our prey, and corn to feed ourselves. Doh.
(Thanks again Walter!)
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Apropos nothing...
I just saw a truck completely covered in a camouflage pattern with a huge dent in the side.
Guess it works.
Guess it works.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Burl Burglar Bagged... Story at 10
My last post showing a huge burl on a huge Atascadero, CA valley oak prompted Oak Watch reader Walter to send this Boston Globe link* to a story about a series of burl thefts from Boston area parks.
Norm Helie is a plant and soil scientist hired by the Friends of the Fenway Victory Gardens to keep the garden healthy. He heard the sound of a chainsaw coming from the woods, went to check it out, and saw two dudes standing over an amputated red oak burl - and probably looking more than a bit guilty. He walked away so as to not become the main character in a really bad and stupid horror movie, and called 911.
Here's a tip for all you wannabe burl thieves out there: When stealing valuable oak burls be sure to do so in broad daylight, and be sure to be seen hauling the burls (and your chainsaw of course) off to your apartment immediately across the street. This saves a lot of time and trouble for the police in locating and questioning you. It is a courtesy they really appreciate.
Under what I am sure was intense questioning burl burglar Michael Scanlon admitted to taking the burls (the ones he was seen by God and everyone taking) but said the others were dropped off at his apartment by a friend. A friend whose name escaped him at the moment. Right.
I was of course shocked to learn that the dude who was with Scanlon at the time was arrested on unrelated drug possession charges.
The story reminds me a bit of a story I heard about 18 years ago of a gang of black walnut tree thieves in Indiana. The group stole dozens of veneer grade black walnut trees, some valued at more than $10,000. They always left behind a pile of empty Budweiser cans. They were caught returning to the scene of a crime to collect the cans for recycling.
OK, I made that last part up. But the story of the Budweiser Gang is very true. They were eventually caught, but I can't remember (and even worse can't Google) how. I'm sure they did something equally dumb.
Only to have another idiot do the same thing.
* This Boston Globe story is worth much less than it was a few days ago. The newspaper itself sold for $1.1 billion not that many years ago. The paper plus a number of other affiliated companies/publications was purchased by Jeff Amazon.com Bezos yesterday for a paltry $70 million (which he probably found loose in the pocket of his spare jeans). He's mostly buying it for the purpose of data mining online Boston Globe readers. Sign o' the times. Said the blogger.
Norm Helie is a plant and soil scientist hired by the Friends of the Fenway Victory Gardens to keep the garden healthy. He heard the sound of a chainsaw coming from the woods, went to check it out, and saw two dudes standing over an amputated red oak burl - and probably looking more than a bit guilty. He walked away so as to not become the main character in a really bad and stupid horror movie, and called 911.
Here's a tip for all you wannabe burl thieves out there: When stealing valuable oak burls be sure to do so in broad daylight, and be sure to be seen hauling the burls (and your chainsaw of course) off to your apartment immediately across the street. This saves a lot of time and trouble for the police in locating and questioning you. It is a courtesy they really appreciate.
Under what I am sure was intense questioning burl burglar Michael Scanlon admitted to taking the burls (the ones he was seen by God and everyone taking) but said the others were dropped off at his apartment by a friend. A friend whose name escaped him at the moment. Right.
I was of course shocked to learn that the dude who was with Scanlon at the time was arrested on unrelated drug possession charges.
The story reminds me a bit of a story I heard about 18 years ago of a gang of black walnut tree thieves in Indiana. The group stole dozens of veneer grade black walnut trees, some valued at more than $10,000. They always left behind a pile of empty Budweiser cans. They were caught returning to the scene of a crime to collect the cans for recycling.
OK, I made that last part up. But the story of the Budweiser Gang is very true. They were eventually caught, but I can't remember (and even worse can't Google) how. I'm sure they did something equally dumb.
Only to have another idiot do the same thing.
* This Boston Globe story is worth much less than it was a few days ago. The newspaper itself sold for $1.1 billion not that many years ago. The paper plus a number of other affiliated companies/publications was purchased by Jeff Amazon.com Bezos yesterday for a paltry $70 million (which he probably found loose in the pocket of his spare jeans). He's mostly buying it for the purpose of data mining online Boston Globe readers. Sign o' the times. Said the blogger.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Now THAT'S what I call a burl
California white (aka valley) oak (Quercus lobata), at the entrance to a vineyard near Atascadero, CA. A giant tree, with a serious burl.
(Click to enlarge)
No, the tree is not growing horizontally (although many oaks in California do seem to). I took the photo on my phone in portrait format, pivoted it before saving the file to my computer, but &^%#$@*&^@ blogger only wants to display it horizontally. Doh.
No matter how you view it, it's pretty dang cool. Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The FAST GROWING giant oaks of the Congaree
Thanks once again to Walter for this great link to a Native Plant Society field trip report on the giant trees of Congaree National Park in South Carolina.
The only problem with these cool links is that they keep adding new places to my list of places I must visit before I croak. Sadly, the the length of the list of places I need to visit keeps growing, while the number of years before I get out of the proverbial canoe continues to diminish. Oh well, c'est la vie (or, for the glass-half-empty types out there, c'est la mort).
Pulling a quote from the linked page:
The second tallest tree is of all things an oak! The incomparable cherrybark
oak (Quercus pagoda) is one of the fastest growing, widest and tallest trees
in the east. Jess and Ed confirmed one to 160.2' tall, making it the 6th
hardwood species to join the "160 Club", joining tuliptree, sycamore, pignut
hickory, black locust, and white ash. If 160' tall wasn't enough, we found
one that measured 154' across! Folks, these trees are immense! I am baffled
by the sheer strength of the wood to hold a canopy so high and so wide
through so many hurricanes.
Utterly massive. 160ft tall with a 154ft crown spread. Wow. That monster shades nearly 1/2 acre (actually it's probably more than that, depending on the time of day, angle of incidence, and ... but I'm not smart enough to do that math, just a big enough tree geek to think of it).
And I know regular readers will have caught the money phrase (at least as far as I'm concerned): cherrybark oak is one of the fastest growing trees in the east.
The widespread - and utterly erroneous - preconception of oaks as the quintessence of slow growth has kept people from planting them in the numbers that they should and must. It's a preconception we must fight.
As a guy who grew up among the relative pygmy oaks of Minnesota and who now lives among the true pygmy oaks of the California central coast (the former due to a 12 day growing season, the latter due to coastal fog combined with sand dune soil), I would love to stand in the shade and glory of 160ft tall oaks.
The only problem with these cool links is that they keep adding new places to my list of places I must visit before I croak. Sadly, the the length of the list of places I need to visit keeps growing, while the number of years before I get out of the proverbial canoe continues to diminish. Oh well, c'est la vie (or, for the glass-half-empty types out there, c'est la mort).
Pulling a quote from the linked page:
The second tallest tree is of all things an oak! The incomparable cherrybark
oak (Quercus pagoda) is one of the fastest growing, widest and tallest trees
in the east. Jess and Ed confirmed one to 160.2' tall, making it the 6th
hardwood species to join the "160 Club", joining tuliptree, sycamore, pignut
hickory, black locust, and white ash. If 160' tall wasn't enough, we found
one that measured 154' across! Folks, these trees are immense! I am baffled
by the sheer strength of the wood to hold a canopy so high and so wide
through so many hurricanes.
Utterly massive. 160ft tall with a 154ft crown spread. Wow. That monster shades nearly 1/2 acre (actually it's probably more than that, depending on the time of day, angle of incidence, and ... but I'm not smart enough to do that math, just a big enough tree geek to think of it).
And I know regular readers will have caught the money phrase (at least as far as I'm concerned): cherrybark oak is one of the fastest growing trees in the east.
The widespread - and utterly erroneous - preconception of oaks as the quintessence of slow growth has kept people from planting them in the numbers that they should and must. It's a preconception we must fight.
As a guy who grew up among the relative pygmy oaks of Minnesota and who now lives among the true pygmy oaks of the California central coast (the former due to a 12 day growing season, the latter due to coastal fog combined with sand dune soil), I would love to stand in the shade and glory of 160ft tall oaks.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
I'm such a lucky guy...
... because I get PAID to talk to awesomely cool people like a founder of the San Diego Sustainable Living Institute.
Keep your eyes on these folks. They will be doing - and growing - some incredible things in the years ahead.
Keep your eyes on these folks. They will be doing - and growing - some incredible things in the years ahead.
The Giants of Bialowieza Forest
Wow, the number of Oak Watch followers continues to grow despite my paltry output of late... thank you! Or, perhaps, the number of Oak Watch followers continues to grow because of my paltry output of late. Maybe if I stop writing altogether this will become the most read blog in the world!
Huge thank you to reader Walter for emailing a list of fascinating links. I will pass them along to you one or two at a time.
Travel to Poland, to be honest, has never been on my bucket list... until now. Click here to visit the amazing Bialowieza Forest. Incredible.
The oaks of Bialowieza - and we're talking about pedunculate/English/common oaks (Quercus robur) - are truly massive. Quoting from the web site:
In order to emphasize uniqueness of such trees the term CLASSICAL BIALOWIEZA OAK has been introduced. To bear this proud name an oak must meet the following criteria: the trunk's perimeter of such tree at the height of 130cm should be at least 550cm, the height of trunk up to the first branch should be at least 15 meters, the total trunk's height should exceed 25 meters and the tree's height should be at least 36 meters. While in the Forest there are thousands of oaks with monumental sizes, only 10-20 meet these criteria. I think that nowhere in Poland or even Europe there are such oaks like here, in the Bialowieza Forest.
For those of you keeping score at home 550cm in perimeter measured 130cm from the ground equates to about 5ft 8in in d.b.h. (diameter at breast height). Holy cats.
So take a break this afternoon or evening and travel to Bialowieza Forest, at least via pixels. The druid's Sistine Chapel.
Huge thank you to reader Walter for emailing a list of fascinating links. I will pass them along to you one or two at a time.
Travel to Poland, to be honest, has never been on my bucket list... until now. Click here to visit the amazing Bialowieza Forest. Incredible.
The oaks of Bialowieza - and we're talking about pedunculate/English/common oaks (Quercus robur) - are truly massive. Quoting from the web site:
In order to emphasize uniqueness of such trees the term CLASSICAL BIALOWIEZA OAK has been introduced. To bear this proud name an oak must meet the following criteria: the trunk's perimeter of such tree at the height of 130cm should be at least 550cm, the height of trunk up to the first branch should be at least 15 meters, the total trunk's height should exceed 25 meters and the tree's height should be at least 36 meters. While in the Forest there are thousands of oaks with monumental sizes, only 10-20 meet these criteria. I think that nowhere in Poland or even Europe there are such oaks like here, in the Bialowieza Forest.
For those of you keeping score at home 550cm in perimeter measured 130cm from the ground equates to about 5ft 8in in d.b.h. (diameter at breast height). Holy cats.
So take a break this afternoon or evening and travel to Bialowieza Forest, at least via pixels. The druid's Sistine Chapel.
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