Your Sunday (June 7) article on oak woodlands was excellent for oaks west of the Cascades and in California, but is somewhat misleading for oaks in Wasco County. For instance Sudden Oak Death Syndrome is “taking out the larger oaks” in California and Southern Oregon, but it does not affect White Oaks, the only kind in Wasco County. This article talks about conditions and research in California and the West Side because absolutely no oak research has been done east of the Cascades. Oak woodlands in the Willamette Valley and Puget Sound areas are unhealthy, and that is where all the research and restoration ideas for oaks are coming from.
Fort Lewis, the site of research mentioned in this article, gets 39 inches of rain a year, the temperature seldom gets above 87 degrees, and the wind rarely gets above 20 mph. Getting enough sunlight is the challenge for oaks there.
On the other hand, our oaks near The Dalles are adapted to survive a much drier, hotter climate with drying summer winds and shallow soil in many places, and getting enough water is the big challenge.
It only makes sense that our oaks would grow differently.
For instance, dense clumps of oaks may provide insulation from our hot, drying winds, and thinning such clumps may kill them, not “restore” them.
Only look at Sevenmile Hill one year after last year’s Rowena Fire, and you will see how well these dense stands of oaks survive fire. Perhaps our oaks are growing as they should to withstand our climate and fires, and are not in need of fixing.
What we need is not oak restoration based on Puget Sound research, but research done here in Wasco County, on our own unique “scrub oak” ecosystem, to find out how it should be here.
Otherwise, trying to “restore” Wasco County oak woodlands by making them into Puget Sound oak woodlands may result in no oaks and many regrets 20 years hence.
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