Sudden oak death is getting worse
There is a growing body of evidence that the incidence of sudden oak death is expanding rapidly. While we wish this wasn't happening, the reality is that oaks in this part of the world may not survive climate change.
With this in mind we think it's time that the City of Oakland, UC Berkeley and East Bay Regional Park District rethink their plans to "restore" much of their hills properties to an oak woodland environment.
It goes without saying that if these agencies remove the tall trees currently resident on these lands with the expectation that they will be replaced by an oak-dominated landscape, this is looking increasingly unlikely that it will work. Instead what we will get are highly fire prone species such as hemlock, thistle, broom, grasses and chaparral.
For more on this please check out the following link: