PRESS RELEASE

Mountain Democrat
December 31, 2004

PARKER DEVELOPMENT FUNDS TREE PLANTING ALONG EL DORADO HILLS BLVD. AND IN SERRANO OPEN SPACE

What on earth are the slender two-foot-high tubes cropping up in the open space along El Dorado Hills Blvd. north of the new El Dorado Hills fire station? They're protective mini-greenhouses for thousands upon thousands of acorns that, with a little luck and a lot of tender care, will one day become mature oak trees. Parker Development Company is funding the planting as part of a decade-long revegetation program involving its master-planned community of Serrano in El Dorado Hills.

"While Parker Development earmarked 1,000 acres of the 3,500-acre Serrano community for open space, it was inevitable that some trees in developed neighborhoods would be displaced," says Andrea Brown, an assistant planner for the developer. "We have made a concerted effort to replace them with new plantings in our open space areas."

This year's oak tree planting began with acorn gathering in September, followed by a couple of months of germination in a controlled environment, and then planting with a slow-release fertilizer in December to reap the benefits of winter rains. The blue oak and valley oak acorns were collected in Serrano open space and at Marble Valley, undeveloped Parker Development Company land south of Highway 50 and Bass Lake Road.

The painstaking, labor-intensive work is being done by Circuit Rider Productions, a Sonoma County-based company that revegitates native plants. Parker Development is paying $86,000 for this year's plantings along El Dorado Hills Blvd. and in selected open-space areas within Serrano. Since inception of the revegetation program, the developer has spent approximately $300,000. Most of the previous years' plantings - you can still see some of the protective tubes - are adjacent to Serrano Parkway and Silva Valley Road.

How many acorns does it take to grow one viable tree? That's almost impossible to answer. But here are some statistics on the Serrano program: Parker Development's goal was to plant 125 acres of land; 95 acres were completed prior to the current project, with 30 more acres due to be planted this time around. The developer chose to go better than required, blanketing some 50 acres of Serrano with acorn plantings this season. The current planting took 9,600 protective tubes, with three to five acorns in each tube planting. Doing the math, that's at least 30,000 individual acorns!

According to Circuit Rider Productions, a good survival rate under natural planting conditions (no irrigation, as is the case in Serrano's natural open space) is 50 percent. Actual survival could be less.

The acorns and - if they make it to the sprouting stage - the plants, are vulnerable to everything from too much water to too little, too much sun, and to all sorts of wildlife. They are ideally planted in areas with natural drainage, facing east to avoid the harsh afternoon sun. The tubes act as a mechanism to lock in moisture while also keeping out foraging animals, such as deer and rabbits. They're topped with plastic mesh "hairnets" to prevent birds looking for food from falling into the tubes.

The blue oaks grow about 6 inches per year; the valley oaks about a foot a year. Some of the saplings may grow to the top of the tubes within a couple years, at which time the tubes may be removed. In some cases, the tubes may be needed for as long as five years. The tubes also serve the purpose of defining the planting spot; they indicate what areas need replanting if the tubes are not supporting sprouting oak trees.

Serrano's goal is to support 70 live oak trees per acre throughout the 125 acres of open space, totaling 8,750 trees. To date, there have been 28,000 individual plantings, which may yield 14,000 trees, assuming a 50 percent survival rate.

But that's not all. Add to the 28,000 oaks another 6,000 hearty cottonwoods planted in open space. Plus, thousands of trees have been planted in developed areas, where they benefit from irrigation with recycled water: 3,600 in Serrano parks and common areas plus at least 11,000 in homeowners' yards to meet the developer's minimal requirements as outlined in design guidelines. Many residents plant more. Thus, it's estimated that Serrano has planted at least 49,000 trees - of which 35,000 are now in various stages of growth.

But one can't think of oak trees and acorns without thinking of squirrels. Does the acorn collection affect their dinner? Not at all, according to Circuit Rider Productions. The acorns gathered from the ground around Serrano and Marble Valley probably represent only about one percent of the entire acorn crop. The revegetation of the trees simply helps ensure plenty of food to go around in years to come.

For more information about the Serrano community and its nature preservation activities, please visit www.serranoeldorado.com.