Oak trees play a critical role in the ecosystem of the Santa Monica Mountains. 5000 species of insects, 150 birds, 105 mammals, 58 reptiles and amphibians, and 5 fish are dependent on oaks for their survival.
Often, following a wildfire or in response to combating climate change, there is a community response to plant trees in order to “do something”. Many areas of the mountains do not support trees, however, and some areas that do now may not in the future. It’s crucial to avoid indiscriminate tree planting in places where planting is not necessary or successful, and to focus restoration efforts in areas where trees can persist into the future.
The LA County Native Tree Priority Planting Plan is a coordinated effort by land managers and ecologists to consider the anticipated effects of climate change, and the recent impacts from the seven-year drought and Woolsey Fire, regarding restoring and expanding native oak and riparian woodlands within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
The plan articulates strategies to maintain biodiversity and resiliency of local trees and woodlands that provide critical habitat and linkage connectivity, as climate change creates significant stressors to their long-term survival.
During the trail crew’s off-season this summer, some of our volunteers spent a morning at Trippet Ranch in Topanga State Park with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, who have been working with CA State Parks to restore 10 acres of oak woodlands that were devastated during the last drought.
“Growing trees that will outlive us gives us a tangible, real action to take in the face of the myriad climate associated problems facing our planet,” said Rosi Dagit, Senior Conservation Biologist for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. “Planting them in places where they have a chance to live long lives means taking a thoughtful approach to our restoration efforts, and using the info we have to make the best possible choices so that the trees survive.”
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DEVELOP is a NASA program which partners with organizations like the RCDSMM that are interested in integrating NASA Earth Science observations to inform their environmental decision making. The program addresses environmental and public policy issues through interdisciplinary research projects, building capacity in partner organizations to better prepare them to address the challenges that face our society and future generations around the globe.
Under this program, the Santa Monica Mountains Climate Team at JPL is using data collected by two airborne NASA Earth Observations (satellites) to isolate vegetation and monitor the changes to said vegetation over time.
UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) senses physical properties, and areas of vegetation are isolated by looking for rough or complex surface returns. AVIRIS (Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) measures over two hundred spectral bands, making it very sensitive to variations in spectral reflectance between the live and dead vegetation within these areas.
To learn more about how the NASA program informs the Native Tree Priority Planting Plan, watch this video (run time 3:00).
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As we helped water and monitor the hundreds of young coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) trees that were recently planted to mitigate for the loss experienced in the park, Rosi described the project as an “act of hope”, in reference to the fact that none of us will see these young trees reach maturity for ourselves.