Apologies for the acronym soup, but if you're interested in joining the CA Native Plant Society (CNPS) started a project (California Oakwatch) to track and identify oaks, focusing on recruiting/young oaks and rare oaks across the State:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/california-oakwatch

They also linking informative training videos on Youtube and some PDF resources to learn to better ID our native oaks.

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P.S. A bonus link and FYI for anyone interested in Oak Rangeland online resources, many UC ANR links were recently reorganized or deleted, so I'm posting this link to UC ANR Oak Rangeland resources (via UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources) in case anyone hasn't seen it.

It contains resources for land managers, homeowners, and others to help manage and protect oak woodlands, as well as links to recent research on the importance of oak woodlands and new management technique publications and findings:

https://oaks.cnr.berkeley.edu/

updated link for UC ANR oak resources here: https://ucanr.edu/sites/csnce/Rangeland/

Citizen scientists jot down the GPS coordinates of a tree featuring signs of Sudden Oak Death.

https://www.losaltosonline.com/news/sections/news/297-news-features/64421-los-altos-hills-seeks-citizen-scientists-to-save-local-oaks

For the uninitiated, forest bathing — or shinrin-yoku, as its Japanese creators call it — is a process of taking in the forest through the senses. Breathing it. Smelling it. Feeling it. Watching it. The practice got started in the 1980s as a way to combat high rates of suicide among Japan’s working class; today, spending time on certified “therapy trails” is considered medical treatment, and scientists are studying it around the world.

https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/amp/election-redwoods-forest-bathing-tahoe-california-15726673.php

Celebrate California’s Natural Beauty!

Join us and our partners for a weeklong celebration of California Biodiversity Day, September 5 – 13.

https://www.sdnhm.org/blog/blog_details/california-biodiversity-week-2020/154/

In California, sudden oak death disease has killed more than 50 million of the state’s iconic oaks and tanoak trees between Humboldt County and Monterey County, threatening survival of several tree species. In 2019 alone, 1 million tanoaks succumbed to sudden oak death (SOD), according to 2019 tree mortality data released by the U.S. Forest Service.

https://yubanet.com/california/volunteers-needed-to-stop-sod-from-killing-oak-trees/

While Humboldt County is known for its beautiful forests, sudden oak death threatens their wellbeing.

https://thelumberjack.org/2020/02/13/oak-blight-hits-humboldt/amp/

California’s native oaks have always evoked the feeling of “home” for me, even though I spent my first quarter-century well east of the Sierra Nevada. From afar, I appreciate the muscular, sculptural beauty of coast live oaks. Up close, I love the multitude of birds and other critters that are drawn to the trees.

https://www.losaltosonline.com/special-sections2/sections/your-home/61778-how-to-re-oak-your-neighborhood

The Goldspotted Oak Borer, or GSOB, is an invasive beetle that is killing native oaks in several areas of Southern California.

https://www.ocregister.com/2020/01/13/what-is-killing-the-native-oaks-of-southern-california/amp/

The valley oak, a tree species native to California, is at the root of a new means of determining an organism’s genetic fitness in the face of climate change.

A UCLA-led study found that under current global warming conditions, trees such as valley oaks are unable to thrive, adapt and proliferate as before. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in November.

https://dailybruin.com/2020/01/05/valley-oak-tree-could-provide-insight-into-how-plants-will-adapt-to-climate-change/

Q: Over the holidays, I was reading about the insect apocalypse. I've decided to include planting an oak tree in my New Year’s resolution list. I read that oak trees provide the most habitat for insects.

https://amp.redding.com/amp/2787701001