Greg, This entanglement/struggle for survival of the two trees is something I've missed despite walking past them countless times. I will now look out for them, wish them both well. But I think I should tell you that the last fire in Eaton Canyon was in October 1993. I'm heartened by the way it's recovered. Maybe in another 16 years, our burnt forest will again look as green as this.
I know that oak survive fires. My aunt's family had property in Julian. They had a huge oak on the land that had survived a fire a century earlier. The fire had burned out the pith so the oak continued growing on the area below the bark (???has a name) to huge dimensions. My question is do pines have that ability to adapt? (as in our pines) Ecologically aren't they like ice age fossils and expected to die out over time? I know they have stands of pines near grizzly flats that were a result of figuring out smog adapted crosses over at the SD experimental forest.
incidentally, the San Diego fires of a few years back took that old oak out.
The fire scar on the Oak may actually be from the 1992 fire.
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteThis entanglement/struggle for survival of the two trees is something I've missed despite walking past them countless times. I will now look out for them, wish them both well. But I think I should tell you that the last fire in Eaton Canyon was in October 1993. I'm heartened by the way it's recovered. Maybe in another 16 years, our burnt forest will again look as green as this.
I know that oak survive fires. My aunt's family had property in Julian. They had a huge oak on the land that had survived a fire a century earlier. The fire had burned out the pith so the oak continued growing on the area below the bark (???has a name) to huge dimensions. My question is do pines have that ability to adapt? (as in our pines) Ecologically aren't they like ice age fossils and expected to die out over time? I know they have stands of pines near grizzly flats that were a result of figuring out smog adapted crosses over at the SD experimental forest.
ReplyDeleteincidentally, the San Diego fires of a few years back took that old oak out.