Posted on 03/31/2025 1:23:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Area will be restored to a native California oak woodland
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District removed about 150 eucalyptus trees in part of a nature preserve last month to replace them with native plants and improve the forest’s fire resilience.
The trees were cleared from a 2.5-acre portion of the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve near Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos as part of the district’s Wildland Fire Resiliency Program, which aims to promote healthy, resilient, fire-adapted ecosystems, reduce wildland fire risk and facilitate the response of fire agencies.
“As a land management agency, we have a responsibility to take care of these lands. These lands, these open spaces, they do so much to take care of us,” said Midpen spokesman Ryan McCauley. “So I think it’s really incumbent upon us as managers of these lands to really ensure that we’re doing everything we can to make sure it’s as resilient as possible.”
The eucalyptus trees were planted ornamentally by the land’s previous owner, said McCauley. They are considered invasive and can outcompete native plants and deplete water supplies. The can grow quickly and prevent sunlight from reaching lower levels of the forest. A reaction between the chemicals the trees exude and the earth also can acidify the soil, making them the predominant species in an area. They also pose a significant wildlife hazard due to their volatile oils and shedding bark and leaf litter.
South of the previously infested portion of land is Aldercroft Heights, a neighborhood that is prone to wildfires and part of the Wildland Urban Interface.
(Excerpt) Read more at eastbaytimes.com ...
Ping
“As a land management agency, we have a responsibility to take care of these lands. These lands, these open spaces, they do so much to take care of us,”
This was actually said by someone in California!?!
LOL! Poor sloth. Where’s the koala bear?
Brain dead lefties.
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Eucalyptus are the least of your worries when hiking around that part of the county:
“6-Year-Old Girl Attacked by Mountain Lion — and Then Rescued by Adult Who Punches Animal”
The little girl suffered minor injuries from the attack but is expected to make a full recovery
By Joelle Goldstein
February 17, 2020
Fighting off a mountain lion to get a child back — that’s some heroism. That was at Rancho San Antonio. I thought there was a similar case near the Pichetti Winery near the reservoir.
Prolly
I like Eucalyptus but, it lights up quick and easy, like aged tinder and diesel...
Won’t someone think of the koala bears?!
Bkmk
Yeah it reads that way. And California greens have it in for calypso’s, since it’s not native. the Dept of Transportation took out I think a hundred or so along Route 99 south of Sacramento a while back essentially because they don’t like them. They’re beautiful when mature. On the other hand, they do drop heavy branches that can kill you on a random basis and, having a high oil content, they do have a disturbing tendency to explode when engulfed by a wildfire. All in all, I would have chosen to have left at least a few for asthetic purposes, but then they wouldn’t have had the ability to pat themselves on the back for their ecological purity in this article
:)
Consider this exposition of the principles governing coastal California's vegetative history.
Sure it wasn’t at Rancho Hold my beer-o!
When I was hiking in New South Wales twenty years ago the whole forest smelled of eucalyptol. It’s highly flammable, almost like gasoline.
The people there told me when there’s a forest fire the trees can explode, sending large splinters flying like shrapnel. It’s dangerous trying to fight the blaze.
So, yes, they need to get rid of them.
Eucalyptus burns enthusiastically. Taking them out for fire clearing kind of makes sense to me in general, but what reasoning is used by someone who thinks the park takes care of them, I could not say.
Half the trees in the country are invasive...if the criteria is that they were imported.
Eucalyptus trees are not native to the US. And they are EXTREMELY flammable. When a forest fire starts, the oil in them ignites and they explode.
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