Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii
In Oregon and Washington its range is continuous from the Cascades crest west to the Pacific Coast Ranges and Pacific Ocean. In California, it is found in the Klamath and California Coast Ranges as far south as the Santa Lucia Mountains with a stand as far south as the Purisima Hills. In the Sierra Nevada it ranges as far south as the Yosemite region and it occurs from near sea level along the coast to 1,800 metres in the California Mountains. Further inland, coast Douglas-fir is replaced by Rocky Mountain or interior Douglas-fir, interior Douglas-fir intergrades with coast Douglas-fir in the Cascades of northern Washington and southern British Columbia. Coast Douglas-fir is the second-tallest conifer in the world, and the third-tallest of all trees, Coast Douglas-fir commonly lives more than 500 years and occasionally more than 1,000 years. The bark on trees is thin, gray. On mature trees, it is thick and corky, the shoots are brown to olive-green, turning gray-brown with age, though not as smooth as fir shoots, and finely pubescent with short dark hairs.
The buds are a distinctive narrow conic shape, 4–8 mm long. Unlike the Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, coast Douglas-fir foliage has a noticeable sweet fruity-resinous scent, the mature female seed cones are pendent, 5–8 centimetres long, 2–3 cm broad when closed, opening to 4 cm broad. They are produced in spring, green at first, maturing orange-brown in the autumn 6–7 months later, the seeds are 5–6 mm long and 3–4 mm broad, with a 12–15 mm wing. The male cones are 2–3 cm long, dispersing yellow pollen in spring, in forest conditions, old individuals typically have a narrow, cylindric crown beginning 20–40 metres above a branch-free trunk. Self-pruning is generally slow and trees retain their lower limbs for a long period, open-grown trees typically have branches down to near ground level. It often takes 70–80 years for the trunk to be clear to a height of 5 metres and 100 years to be clear to a height of 10 metres, appreciable seed production begins at 20–30 years in open-grown coast Douglas-fir.
Seed production is irregular, over a 5-7 year period, stands usually produce one crop, a few light or medium crops. Even during heavy seed crop years, only about 25 percent of trees in closed stands produce a number of cones. Each cone contains around 25 to 50 seeds, seed size varies, average number of cleaned seeds varies from 70-88/g. Seeds from the portion of coast Douglas-firs range tend to be larger than seed from the south. Some roots are found in organic soil layers or near the mineral soil surface
El Dorado County, California
El Dorado County, officially the County of El Dorado, is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 181,058, El Dorado County is part of the Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is in the historic Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada, El Dorado Countys population has grown as Greater Sacramento has expanded into the region. The County of El Dorado was one of Californias original 27 counties created effective February 18,1850 and its name is derived from the Spanish meaning the gilded/golden. The final segments of the Pony Express mail route ran through El Dorado County until its replacement with the service in 1861. Mother lode James W. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,786 square miles. The racial makeup of El Dorado County was 156,793 White,1,409 African American,2,070 Native American,6,297 Asian,294 Pacific Islander,7,278 from other races, and 6,917 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21,875 persons, the largest growth in the county has come in El Dorado Hills where the population grew by 24,092 residents to a total of 42,108 since 2000.
As of the census of 2000, there were 156,299 people,58,939 households, the population density was 91 people per square mile. There were 71,278 housing units at a density of 42 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 89. 7% White,0. 5% Black or African American,1. 0% Native American,2. 1% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,3. 6% from other races, and 3. 0% from two or more races. 9. 3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,14. 9% were of German,13. 4% English,10. 3% Irish,6. 6% Italian and 6. 6% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 90. 5% spoke English and 6. 5% Spanish as their first language,20. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the family size was 3.04. In the county, the population was out with 26. 1% under the age of 18,6. 8% from 18 to 24,27. 8% from 25 to 44,26. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 99.5 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.3 males, the 2000 census states that the median income for a household in the county was $51,484, and the median income for a family was $60,250. Males had an income of $46,373 versus $31,537 for females
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. He was a member of the Republican Party for most of his life, Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nations reserves by planned use and renewal. He called it the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man, Pinchot coined the term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources. He was the first to demonstrate the practicality and profitability of managing forests for continuous cropping and his leadership put conservation of forests high on Americas priority list. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest as though it were spelled pincho and he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and in 1889, Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He had a brother Amos Pinchot and a sister Antoinette, the Pinchots made a great fortune from lumbering and land speculation, and Pinchots father regretted the damage his familys work had done to the land.
James made conservation a family affair and suggested that Gifford should become a forester, Gifford studied as a postgraduate at the French National School of Forestry, in Nancy, for a year. He returned home and plunged into the nascent forestry movement, intent on shaping a national forest policy, family financial affairs were managed by brother Amos Pinchot, thus freeing Gifford to do the more important work of developing forest management concepts. Unlike some others in the movement, Giffords wealth allowed him to singly pursue this goal without worry of income. Pinchots approach set him apart from the leading forestry experts, especially Bernhard E. Fernow. Schenck was Pinchots successor at the Biltmore Estate and founder of the Biltmore Forest School on Biltmore Estate. Perhaps, the men who had the most influence on his development as a forester were Sir Dietrich Brandis, who had brought forestry to the British Empire, and Sir Wilhelm Schlich, Brandis successor. Pinchot relied heavily upon Brandis advice for introducing professional forest management in the U. S.
in 1896, the National Academy of Sciences formed the National Forest Commission. Pinchot was the only non-Academy member, President Grover Cleveland asked Pinchot to develop a plan for managing the nations Western forest reserves. In 1897, Pinchot became a member of Boone and Crockett Club one of North Americas first conservation organizations, in 1898, Gifford Pinchot succeeded Bernhard Fernow as chief of the Division of Forestry, renamed the United States Forest Service in 1905. Thus, management of the federal forests changed from the United States Department of the Interior to this agency within the Department of Agriculture. Pinchot introduced better forestry methods into the operations of private owners and small, by using new forestry school graduates to good practices. In 1900, Pinchot established the Society of American Foresters and this helped bring credibility to the new profession of forestry, and was part of the broader professionalization movement underway in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century
Lassen Peak
Lassen Peak, commonly referred to as Mount Lassen, is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, Lassen rises 3,500 ft above the terrain and has a volume of 0.5 cu mi. It was created on the northeastern flank of now-gone Mount Tehama. It is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which stretches from southwestern British Columbia to northern California, on May 22,1915, a powerful explosive eruption at Lassen Peak devastated nearby areas, and spread volcanic ash as far as 200 mi to the east. This explosion was the most powerful in a series of eruptions from 1914 through 1917, Lassen Peak and Mount St. Helens were the only two volcanoes in the contiguous United States to erupt during the 20th century. Lassen Volcanic National Park was created in Tehama County, California, to preserve the areas as they were, for future observation and study. Lassen Peak has the highest known winter snowfall amounts in California, there is an average annual snowfall of 660 in, and in some years, more than 1,000 in of snow falls at its base altitude of 8,250 ft at Lake Helen.
The Lassen Peak area receives more precipitation than anywhere in the Cascade Range south of the Three Sisters volcanoes in Oregon, the heavy annual snowfall on Lassen Peak creates fourteen permanent patches of snow on and around the mountain top, despite Lassens rather modest elevation, but no glaciers. Lightning has been known to strike the summit of the volcano frequently during summer thunderstorms, Lassen Peak is the southernmost in the chain of eighteen large volcanic peaks that stretch from southwestern British Columbia to northern California. These peaks were formed during the past 35 million years while the large Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the much smaller Gorda plate to its south subducted under the North American plate. As the oceanic crust of the Juan de Fuca plate melts in the zone, pools of magma form. Roughly 27,000 years ago, Lassen Peak started to form as a dacite lava dome pushed its way through Tehamas destroyed north-eastern flank. As the lava dome grew it shattered overlaying rock, which formed a blanket of talus around the emerging steep-sided volcano.
It likely resembled the nearby 1, 100-year-old Chaos Crags, Lassen Peak reached its present height in a relatively short time, probably in just a few years. From 25,000 to 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period of the current Ice Age, for example, the bowl-shaped depression on the volcano’s northeastern flank, called a cirque, was eroded by a glacier that extended out 7 mi from the dome. The most recent eruptive period of Lassen Peak began in 1914, the region around Lassen Peak remains active, with mudpots and hot springs demonstrating area activity. The areas around Lassen Peak and the nearby Mount Shasta are considered to be the most likely volcanoes in the Cascade Range to erupt during the decades and centuries. Before the arrival of settlers, the areas surrounding Lassen Peak, especially to its east, south
Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail is 2,659 mi long and ranges in elevation from just above sea level at the Oregon–Washington border to 13,153 feet at Forester Pass in the Sierra Nevada. The route passes through 25 national forests and 7 national parks and its midpoint is near Chester, where the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges meet. It was designated a National Scenic Trail in 1968, although it was not officially completed until 1993, the PCT was conceived by Clinton Churchill Clarke in 1932. It received official status under the National Trails System Act of 1968 and it is the westernmost and second longest component of the Triple Crown of Hiking and is part of the 6, 875-mile Great Western Loop. The route is mostly through National Forest and protected wilderness, the trail avoids civilization and covers scenic and pristine mountainous terrain with few roads. A parallel route for bicycles, the Pacific Crest Bicycle Trail is a 2, the PCT and PCBT cross in about 27 places along their routes. The Pacific Crest Trail was first proposed by Clinton C, Clarke, as a trail running from Mexico to Canada along the crest of the mountains in California and Washington.
The original proposal was to link the John Muir Trail, the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail, the Skyline Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail System Conference was formed by Clarke to both plan the trail and to lobby the federal government to protect the trail. The conference was founded by Clarke, the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, from 1935 through 1938, YMCA groups explored the 2000 miles of potential trail and planned a route, which has been closely followed by the modern PCT route. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson defined the PCT, the PCT was constructed through cooperation between the federal government and volunteers organized by the Pacific Crest Trail Association. In 1993, the PCT was officially declared finished, thru hiking is a term used in referring to hikers who complete long-distance trails from end to end in a single trip. The Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide Trail were the first three long-distance trails in the U. S, successfully thru-hiking all of these three trails is known as the Triple Crown of Hiking.
Thru-hiking is a commitment, usually taking between four and six months, that requires thorough preparation and dedication. The Pacific Crest Trail Association estimates that it takes most hikers between six and eight months to plan their trip, while most hikers travel from the Southern Terminus at the Mexico–US border northward to Manning Park, British Columbia, some hikers prefer a southbound route. In a normal year, northbound hikes are most practical due to snow. If snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is high in early June and low in the Northern Cascades, however, it is not currently possible to legally enter the United States from Canada by using the Pacific Crest Trail. Hikers have to determine their resupply points, resupply points are towns or post offices where hikers replenish food and other supplies such as cooking fuel. Hikers can ship packages to themselves at the U. S, post Offices along the trail, resupply at general and grocery stores along the trail, or any combination of the two
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is a potentially active volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. At an elevation of 14,179 feet, it is the second highest peak in the Cascades, Mount Shasta has an estimated volume of 85 cubic miles, which makes it the most voluminous stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. The mountain and its area are managed by the U. S. Forest Service as part of the Shasta–Trinity National Forest. Mount Shasta is connected to nearby Shastina, and they dominate the northern California landscape and it rises abruptly and stands nearly 10,000 ft above the surrounding terrain. On a clear day, snowy Mount Shasta can be seen from the floor of the Central Valley 140 miles to the south. The mountain has attracted the attention of poets, authors, if Shastina were a separate mountain, it would rank as the fourth-highest peak of the Cascade Range. Mount Shastas surface is free of deep glacial erosion except, paradoxically. This is the largest glacial valley on the volcano, although it not now have a glacier in it.
There are seven named glaciers on Mount Shasta, with the four largest radiating down from high on the summit cone to below 10,000 ft primarily on the north. The Whitney Glacier is the longest, and the Hotlum is the most voluminous glacier in the state of California. Three of the smaller named glaciers occupy cirques near and above 11,000 ft on the south and southeast sides, including the Watkins and Mud Creek glaciers. The oldest known human habitation in the dates to about 7,000 years ago. The historic eruption of Mount Shasta in 1786 may have been observed by Lapérouse, although perhaps first seen by Spanish explorers, the first reliably reported land sighting of Mount Shasta by a European or American was by Peter Skene Ogden in 1826. In 1827, the name Sasty or Sastise was given to nearby Mount McLoughlin by Ogden, the name was transferred to present-day Mount Shasta in 1841, partly as a result of work by the United States Exploring Expedition. Beginning in the 1820s, Mount Shasta was a prominent landmark along what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, the Siskiyou Trail was on the track of an ancient trade and travel route of Native American footpaths between Californias Central Valley and the Pacific Northwest.
The California Gold Rush brought the first Euro-American settlements into the area in the early 1850s, including at Yreka, the first recorded ascent of Mount Shasta occurred in 1854, after several earlier failed attempts. In 1856, the first women reached the summit, by the 1860s and 1870s, Mount Shasta was the subject of scientific and literary interest. A book by California pioneer and entrepreneur James Hutchings, titled Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California, the summit was achieved by John Muir, Josiah Whitney, Clarence King, and John Wesley Powell
Pinus contorta
Pinus contorta, with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine. Like all pines, it is an evergreen conifer, there are four subspecies of Pinus contorta, and one of them is sometimes considered to have two varieties. The subspecies are sometimes treated at the rank of variety, Bolanders beach pine, Bolander pine, endemic to NW California Coast, Near Threatened by fires and development Pinus contorta subsp. Contorta, Shore pine, Pacific Coast, southern Alaska to northern California. Pinus contorta subsp, contorta var. contorta, Shore pine, Pacific Coast, Northwest California through Alaska. Murrayana, Tamarack pine, or Sierra lodgepole pine, Cascade Range from Washington into Northern California, the Sierra Nevada, Lodgepole pine, Rocky Mountains, Colorado to Yukon and Saskatchewan, Aspen parkland and boreal forests. Depending on subspecies, Pinus contorta grows as a shrub or tree.
The shrub form is krummholz and is approximately 1 to 3 m high, the thin and narrow-crowned tree is 40 to 50 m high and can achieve up to 2 m in diameter at chest height. The murrayana subspecies is the tallest, the crown is rounded and the top of the tree is flattened. In dense forests, the tree has a slim, conical crown, the formation of twin trees is common in some populations in British Columbia. The elastic branches stand upright or overhang and are difficult to break, the branches are covered with short shoots that are easy to remove. The species name is contorta because of the twisted, bent pines found at coastal areas, Pinus contorta is occasionally known under several English names, black pine, scrub pine, and coast pine. Latifolia will hybridise with the closely related Jack pine, the egg-shaped growth buds are reddish-brown and between 20 and 30 mm long. They are short pointed, slightly rotated, and very resinous, spring growth starts in beginning of April and the annual growth is completed by early July.
The dark and mostly shiny needles are pointed and 4 to 8 cm long and 0.9 to 2 mm wide, the needle edge is weak to clearly serrated. The needles are in pairs on short shoots and rotated about the shoots longitudinal axes, in Alberta above 2,000 m,1 to 5 needles occur per short shoot. A population with a proportion of three-needled short shoots occurs in the Yukon. Needles live an average of four to six years, with a maximum of 13 years, the cones are 3–7 centimetres long
United States Department of Agriculture
Approximately 80% of USDAs $140 billion budget goes to the Food and Nutrition Service program. The largest component of the FNS budget is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, after the resignation of Thomas Vilsack on January 13,2017 and the departure of President Barack Obama from office on January 20,2017, the acting Secretary of Agriculture is Michael Young. Activities in this include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides healthy food to over 40 million low-income. The USDA is concerned with assisting farmers and food producers with the sale of crops and it plays a role in overseas aid programs by providing surplus foods to developing countries. This aid can go through USAID, foreign governments, international bodies such as World Food Program, the Agricultural Act of 1949, section 416 and Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, known as Food for Peace, provides the legal basis of such actions. The USDA is a partner of the World Cocoa Foundation, early in its history, the economy of the United States was largely agrarian.
Officials in the government had long sought new and improved varieties of seeds, plants. In 1837 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, a Yale-educated attorney interested in improving agriculture, became Commissioner of Patents and he began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and agricultural societies. In 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for the collection of agricultural statistics, Ellsworth was called the Father of the Department of Agriculture. In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior, in the ensuing years, agitation for a separate bureau of agriculture within the department or a separate department devoted to agriculture kept recurring. Lincoln called it the peoples department, in the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, and farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank, finally, on February 9,1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level.
In 1887, the Hatch Act provided for the funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, with these and similar provisions, the USDA reached out to every county of every state. During the Great Depression, farming remained a way of life for millions of Americans. The Department of Agricultures Bureau of Home Economics, established in 1923, published shopping advice and recipes to stretch family budgets and make food go farther. USDA helped ensure that continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisted with loans for small landowners. The Department of Agriculture was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2015 of $139.7 billion, the Washington Post reports that he said There are days when I have literally nothing to do, he recalled thinking as he weighed his decision to quit
Yuba County, California
Yuba County is a county located in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 72,155, Yuba County is included in the Yuba City, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Sacramento-Roseville, CA Combined Statistical Area. The county is located in Californias Central Valley along the Feather River, Yuba County was one of the original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the territory were given to Placer County in 1851, to Nevada County in 1851. The county was named after the Yuba River by Captain John Sutter for the Native American village Yubu, Yupu or Juba near the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers. General Mariano Vallejo stated that the river was named Uba by an expedition in 1824 because of the quantities of wild grapes which they found growing on its banks. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 644 square miles. It is the fifth-smallest county in California by total area, the county lies along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, the steep slopes making it prime territory for the siting of hydroelectric power plants.
A portion of the county, where Marysville and most of the lives, is west of the mountains on the valley floor. There is a deal of agriculture business in this part of the county, especially fruit orchards, rice fields. National protected areas within Yuba County include portions of the Plumas National Forest, in addition to these identified protected areas the county has extensive natural areas consisting of forestation, riparian area and other habitats. The county exhibits a diversity of flowering plant species, among which is the yellow mariposa lily. The following table includes the number of reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense. Yuba is a strongly Republican county in Presidential and congressional elections, the last Democrat to win a majority in the county was Jimmy Carter in 1976. In the United States House of Representatives, Yuba County is in Californias 3rd congressional district, in the California State Legislature, the county is in the 4th Senate District, represented by Republican Jim Nielsen, and the 3rd Assembly District, represented by Republican James Gallagher.
State Route 20 State Route 49 State Route 65 State Route 70 Yuba Sutter Transit operates local bus service, Yuba County Airport is located three miles south of Marysville. It is a general aviation airport, Brownsville Aero Pines Airport is located off La Porte Rd in Brownsville. The 2010 United States Census reported that Yuba County had a population of 72,155
California
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence.
The western portion of Alta California was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, real estate services and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups were diverse in their organization with bands, villages. Trade and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years English explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
Quercus kelloggii
Quercus kelloggii, the California black oak, known as simply black oak, or Kellogg oak, is an oak in the red oak section, native to western North America. It is a relative of the black oak found in eastern. California black oak is a tree growing in mixed evergreen forests, oak woodlands. California black oak is distributed along foothills and lower mountains of California and it is found from Lane County, south through the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada, and the Coast and Peninsular ranges to San Diego County and into Baja California. The tree occurs in pure or mixed stands, pure stands usually indicate sites unfavorable to conifer growth or recurring disturbance such as fire or logging activities. The tree can grow in many types of soils, but it is important that the soil be well-drained, Quercus kelloggii typically grows from 9–25 m in height and from 0. 3–1.4 m in diameter. Large trees may exceed 36 m in height and 1.6 m diameter, the species grows in shrubby scrub-oak form on poor sites.
In open areas the crown is broad and rounded, with lower branches nearly touching the ground or forming a browse line, in closed stands, the crown is narrow and slender in young trees and irregularly broad in old trees. Trunks are usually free of branches on the lower 6–12 m in closed stands, trunks are often forked, and usually decayed and hollow in older trees. The bark is thin and smooth in young trees, becoming thick and this oak grows from one to several vertical roots which penetrate to bedrock, with large, laterally spreading roots extending off from vertical ones. It has a number of surface roots, acorns are relatively large in this species, from 2. 5–3 cm long and 1. 5–1.8 cm wide. The deeply lobed leaves are typically 10–20 cm long, while individual trees generally have a lifespan between 100 and 200 years, California black oak can live up to 500 years of age. The tree reproduces when its acorns sprout to form seedlings and it reproduces vegetatively with new growth sprouting from the root crown after the tree is top-killed by wildfire, frost, or other events.
The California black oak, Quercus kelloggii, is a species for wildlife. Livestock make use of this species for food and cover. Cavities in the trees provide den or nest sites for owls, various woodpeckers, tree squirrels, trees provide valuable shade for livestock and wildlife during the hot summer months. California black oak forest types are used for spring, summer. It is browsed by deer and livestock
Ecology of the Sierra Nevada
See Sierra Nevada for general information about the mountain range in the United States. The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U. S. state of California, is diverse and complex, the plants and animals are a significant part of the scenic beauty of the mountain range. The combination of climate, topography and soils influences the distribution of ecological communities across an elevation gradient from 1,000 feet to over 14,000 feet. Biotic zones range from scrub and chaparral communities at lower elevations, to subalpine forests, particular ecoregions that follow elevation contours are often described as a series of belts that follow the length of the Sierra Nevada. There are many hiking trails and unpaved roads, and vast public lands in the Sierra Nevada for exploring the different biomes. The western and eastern Sierra Nevada have substantially different species of plants and animals, the plants and animals in the east are thus adapted to much drier conditions. The altitudes listed for the zones are for the central Sierra Nevada.
The climate across the axis of the range varies somewhat. The lowest-elevation biotic zone in the Sierra Nevada is found along the boundary with the Central Valley. This zone, stretching in elevation from 500 to 3,500 feet, is the woodland zone. The foothills are vegetated with grasslands of mostly non-native grasses, mixed grasslands and woodlands savanna, a foothill woodland community of blue oak and gray pine, many of the plant communities are similar to those found on the inner California Coast Ranges. Animals typical of this zone include black bear, ringtail cat, gray squirrel, California mule deer, in the foothills of the northern portion of the Sierra Nevada and chamise often co-dominate certain open serpentine chaparral communities. Beginning near the 3,000 foot elevation, the hot, dry summers and cool and this zone is known as the yellow pine forest zone. The accumulation of several feet of snow during the winter is not uncommon, the diversity of tree species found in this zone make this a beautiful and interesting forest to explore.
The lower montane forests include such as California black oak, sugar pine, incense-cedar. The giant sequoia groves of the Sierra Nevada are found within this biotic zone, animals that may be found in this zone include the dark-eyed junco, mountain chickadee, western gray squirrel, mule deer, and American black bear. The endangered Yosemite toad is found in forests of the central Sierra Nevada. The lower montane forest can be seen in Yosemite Valley and along the Wawona, Hetch Hetchy, the upper montane forest begins at higher elevations near 7,000 feet, where the montane climate is characterized by short, cool summers and cold, wet winters
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