Renewal

I decided to check out the burn area in the Shell Ridge Open Space this morning to see if there were any signs of renewal. Despite there having been no rain since the fire, I did find a couple of hopeful signs, including this new growth sprouting from the base of a small Valley Oak. It will be interesting to see what appears over the next weeks and months.

I also found two Saucer Galls on a Blue Oak, one of which can be viewed here. Since many of the lower limbs on the ridge were burned in the fire, I had thought I wouldn't be able to find any, but the fire cleared the tall dry grasses from under some trees lower on the slope and actually made it easier to inspect some of them. However, there still seem to be very few galls this year. Many of the oaks seem to be stressed for reasons unrelated to the fire, perhaps it was the wet spring.