Trip to Northern California ... continued

SIERRA NEVADA

The dry rolling slopes of the Sierra are a real contrast to the coastal fog belt. I was fortunate enough to spend several days with Dr. Bill Libby visiting trial sites in Blodgett Forest at about 4000 feet, east of Sacramento on the west side of the Sierra, and later at Russell Reservation near Berkeley in the Coast Range.

At Blodgett, 8000 acres of cut over railway land gifted to the University of California in 1933, is managed as a commercial and research forest. Bob Heald, Blodgett manager, has established trials interplanting Sequoiadendron giganteum with Sierra provenance Abies concolor, Calocedrus decurrens, Pinus lambertiana, Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii, compared with single species plantations. The growth rate and foliage colour of Sequoiadendron was superior in the five species mix.

We finished the day as the sun was setting amongst huge sugar pines (Pinus lambertiana). While the rotation is longer, the diversity of species growing in a harsh environment is most impressive.

The next day we visited Bills’ redwood Christmas tree project, using a selected clone, which we will have available in the future. Russell Reservation is a former corn, tomato and livestock farm, set in the foothills 20 miles east of San Francisco; it includes the Kuser Sequoia sempervirens collection. Replicated trials compare select clones with random clones from all parts of the redwood range. One clone was from the controlled cross of the two tallest redwoods, both then a bit over 111m tall, a clone Bill describes as having royal lineage.

MONTEREY

I travelled south through the Ano Nuevo Pinus radiata provenance and on to Monterey to the largest natural area of radiata and home of Cupressus macrocarpa. The town was formerly the Spanish capital of Alta California and a fishing port, but is now an upmarket tourist destination. Pebble Beach Golf Course and Estate has particularly good examples of windswept macrocarpa along its beach frontage.

The final tree-hunting destination was to seek out the southern range of Sequoia sempervirens where they become restricted to moist, very steep sided gullies.

An excellent tree reference with beautiful photographs is ‘Conifers of California’ by Ronald M Lanner.

... back