O’Leary has traveled the length and breadth of California in search of oaks. Her travels have taken her all the way from the Oregon and Garry oaks of the Bald Hills region of Redwood National Park down to the Engleman or Pasadena oaks east of San Diego, and everywhere in between.

“There are 20 different varieties of tree oaks the grow in California, not to mention all the shrub oaks,” said O’Leary.

https://www.times-standard.com/2019/11/01/local-painter-finds-inspiration-in-oak-trees/amp/

It is the forgotten killer when compared to our increasingly frequent climate calamities, but the virulent pathogen known as sudden oak death remains active and is spreading death so fast it could destroy California’s coastal forest ecosystem, UC Berkeley scientists reported Thursday.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/amp/Sudden-oak-death-spreading-fast-California-s-14815683.php

Sudden Oak Death (SOD), a deadly disease for oak trees, is on the rise in California. According to a survey conducted by UC Berkeley scientists, the number of infected trees has almost doubled since 2018.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/amp/Sudden-Oak-Death-tree-disease-spreading-California-14826131.php

An invasive beetle that kills oak trees has been found in another part of Southern California.

State and federal authorities say Tuesday the goldspotted oak borer was detected in recently killed California black oaks in the western San Bernardino County community of Wrightwood.

https://amp.sacbee.com/news/california/article237287979.html

Addressing the fate of the revered California Oak, Frank Davis, a distinguished professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara, will present a free lecture entitled, “California Oaks in a Changing Environment” on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.

https://santamariatimes.com/lifestyles/what-does-the-future-hold-for-the-california-oak-lecture/article_568da91c-294b-5d2c-95ba-5eb2e4a576b1.amp.html

If you have oak trees in your neighborhood, perhaps you’ve noticed that some years the ground is carpeted with their acorns, and some years there are hardly any. Biologists call this pattern, in which all the oak trees for miles around make either lots of acorns or almost none, “masting.”

https://www.lakeconews.com/index.php/news/63386-tons-of-acorns-it-must-be-a-mast-year

The valley oak is poorly adapted to rising temperatures, UCLA-led study finds.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/valley-oak-conservation-lessons

While its overall population numbers are just around 2,000, the island scrub jay’s impact on the world around it is enormous. By caching thousands of acorns every year, it has helped to restore Santa Cruz Island’s precious oak woodlands.

https://vcreporter.com/2019/11/feathered-friends-the-evolution-and-impact-of-santa-cruz-islands-endemic-scrub-jay/