Ojai forester
branches out
by Kelly Feser Eells

In Ojai and its environs, "tree-sits" take place in oaks. In Northern California, it's redwoods, like the famed Luna, where Julia Butterfly Hill lived for 738 days in an - ultimately successful - effort to halt its being logged. It might surprise some people to learn, however, that the majestic redwood's distribution extends as far south as the San Luis Obispo-Monterey County line.
"There's a small string of them there," said local resident Mark Borchert, Ph.D., co-author of "Coast Redwood: A Natural and Cultural History." The string, known as "Ragged Point," lies at the southern gateway to Big Sur.
Borchert, an ecologist for Los Padres National Forest, has been working out of the Ojai Ranger District office for 22 years. While his specialty is fire ecology (and he agrees he's "in the right area" for such study), an intensive plot vegetation survey he conducted for the district in the mid-'80s has helped him become somewhat of a Southern California redwood expert.
Borchert's quick to point out, however, that he is responsible for just one of the book's seven chapters. "But I haven't gotten any major complaints from Humboldt State University," he chuckled.
Considering the fact that the oldest redwoods have been around longer than 2,000 years, "Coast Redwood" the book is a relative youngster in that it went from seed to fruition in just seven. "I got involved in the project," said Borchert, "in 1994, as a consequence of the vegetation project."
It was Cachuma Press publisher John Evarts, editor and co-author of "Coast Redwood," who made the first move. "Mark's done some great research," said Evarts, "and should be better known!"
Borchert's contribution to the lushly illustrated book is, as might be expected from an ecologist, concerned with the ecology of the redwoods and the ecosystems unique to each forest. "The focus of my chapter is primarily the disturbance factor," he said; "flooding, fire and landslides."
Though fire is a disturbance associated with all three forest types - alluvial-flat, redwood/Douglas fir, and redwood/mixed evergreen - it has its biggest influence on the ecosystems of redwood/mixed evergreen forests, like the Ragged Point string.
"Flooding, of course, is the biggest factor in the northerly, wetter forests. In the '60s, for example, during that huge flood, when the banks of the Eel River overflowed, layers and layers of mud, silt, sediment buried everything. Including the trunks of trees. But the redwoods, the ones found in these alluvial flood plains, they didn't suffocate."
He explained that some redwoods' response to "burial by sediment" is to send out new roots that shoot upwards, where the oxygen is, creating a temporary, sustaining root system while a more permanent one develops below. "They're remarkably adapted to dealing with flooding (up) there."
In addition to fire, sea spray helps define the ecology and shape the look of certain central coast forests. The redwoods that dot Big Sur's bluffs, for instance, are exposed to a continuous shower of wind-carried sea salt - an element known to stunt many tree species' growth. The redwoods in this area grow no taller than 30 feet, with some fully mature trees measuring a relatively miniature 3 feet high.
Another disturbance factor, Borchert noted, are people. "And they've been both a blessing and a curse."
On the downside, a full 95 percent of the coast redwood forests have been logged once or more. "Only 5 percent of the entire forest hasn't been logged; 'old grove' forests are really rare." Though the most heavily logged areas, like the Santa Cruz Mountains, "have seen a lot of second growth," Borchert indicated that more attention needs to be paid to the effects that various logging methods have on indigenous redwood plant communities.
On the upside, "the Rockefeller Grove (named for John D. Rockefeller, prime contributor to the Save-the-Redwoods League established in 1918) was set aside early enough" to, not only ensure the preservation of the world's largest contiguous old-growth forest, but make old-growth and/or ancient ecosystems a point of reference from which future forest policy discussion could be based. Indeed, philanthropy is credited with much of the 100-year-old redwood conservation movement's successes. "The book chronicles this really well," said Borchert.
"The whole thing is well-written. Cachuma Press doesn't put out a lot of titles, but the ones it does are all really well done."
While he admits, "I'd love to do something like that again," he's more enthusiastic these days about several projects in the works at Los Padres' Ojai District office. "For example, there's one currently under way where we're looking at creating a buffer zone of burned fuel (chaparral) at the urban interface - where the National Forest meets the city."
He emphasized the important safety role prescribed fires play in areas like Ojai, where houses are built too close to the fuel. "It's called 'fuel' because we think of it as leaves and stems just ready to burn. In creating a buffer zone, the fuel doesn't burn as quickly into the city. With the Painted Cave Fire in Santa Barbara, (the combination of) slopes and strong wind, well, that could happen with Ojai's chaparral. It's a highly flammable vegetation type. But it's always been here, well before people were. And it's been the source of large fires since Columbus."
"Coast Redwood" is available at Local Hero, 254 E. Ojai Ave., where, this Earth Day, April 22, Borchert will be on hand for a book signing and slide show presentation. Call 646-3165 for more information.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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