Dealing With Garry Oaks' Problems

Do you want to save a Garry oak community near you? Here are three easy steps to protect a Garry oak habitat, thanks to the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society who provided them.

Unique Garry Oak meadows and woodland form the natural habitat of southern Vancouver Island. They are one of the most endangered habitats in Canada. These plant communitites are part of our natural and cultural heritage and we all have a responsibility to pass them on to the next generation. You can help protect and restore the oak meadows by following some of the suggestion below.

1. Convert your garden into a Garry oak meadow. If you live in an oak area, you can restore the natural habitat by planting Garry oaks, associated shrubs and wildflowers. Garry oak seedlings and native plants are available at Fraser's Thimble Farms Nusery on Saltspring Island BC, and at Mosswood Perennials in Victoria BC.

2. Collect your own acorns and gorw your own trees. Collect acorns from a local tree in the fall. The more you collect, the better chance one is likely to survive. Be prepared for some successes and some failures. Poke the pointed end of the acorn into your garden soil and cover with a handful of leaves. Or you can grow accorns in containers. Choose a deep container-a 2' piece of 4" drain pipe works beautifully with a bit of wire mesh at the bottom end. Oaks send down long taproots, so the deeper the container, the better chance for survival when you come to transplant.

3. Let nature do all the work! Fend off lawnmowers, sprinklers, animals, and chemicals. As a rule of thumb, to guarantee the suvival of your native plants, allow the most natural conditions to prevail. After all, the've been surviving here for 8,000 years. Leave the leaves! If raking leaves is not your idea of a Saturday morning exercise, leave the leaves for nurturing the soil underneath. Or, if you must, rake them up in the fall for they make wonderful garden compost.

4. "There's no room for broom." Resist the temptation to grow exotic plant species around your Garry oak. An introduced choking plant, like ivy, kills trees. Broom, blackberry, and gorsde are also introduced plants and block out native wildflowers. Pull these species out in the spring-by the roots if you can. The natural understory of shrubs and wildflowers will grow again if you give it space. Remember, "There's no room for broom, and gorse is worse," and, "At Christmas make merry and prune your blackberry."

5. Protect trees from stress. Attach signs, clotheslines, and Christmas lights to your house and fence, not to your tree. There are enough stresses and strains on it wothout adding a few more.

6. Contruction can be fatal. If you must do any digging, trenching or construction near an oak, remember that the most vulnerable parts of the tree are the base of the trunk and the root zone within the top three feet of the soil. Though an oak develops a deep taproot early in life, later the most important roots are shallow ones. Mature trees tolerate change less and less (like us). Keep in mind, too, that oaks die very slowly. It might take 10 years to kill an oak after construction around its roots.

7. Protect trees in your community Take action when you think Garry oaks may be damaged or cut down. Talk to your neighbours, the municipal parks department, builders and developers about growing and caring for Garry oaks and native plants.

8. Locate favourite meadows in your area on a city and send the information to the Conservation Data Centre, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, 780 Blanshard St., Victoria V8W 2H1. The Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society is assisting in an inventory of the remaining oak meadows so that municipalities will take measures to safeguard these areas from development.

About government intervention, well, there is virtually none. There was an event that was supposed help with the planting of Garry oak acorns organized by the Garry Oak Meadows Preservation Society. They approached the Federal government for soil and pots, but were turned down. The government refused to finance to project unkess the seedlings were purchased from a nursery. They were told that the government is not willing to help citizens collect, germinate, and plant the acorns.

The whole project would cost about $53,000, and would include school students and communtiy members. It's sad that the government won't support community projects such as this.

There aren't many projected plans for the future that I have seen. But I think everyone should pitch in sometime in the near future to fix that problem.

Now, if you want to manage all those insect pests, such as jumping gall wasps and oak leaf phylloxeran, all you have to do is leave them alone. The natural predators are much better at eliminating the pests than you are (no offence or anything).

In general, all you have to do is leave the trees alone. But some extra things, such as pulling Scotch broom, would be a BIG help.