Sonoma Mountain Institute

Our Pike Property manager Dan Guyer has spent most of his efforts, dealing with the dead pine trees that were caused by the western pine beetle infestation. The mortality there has been severe and we have lost probably thousands of trees. Up until last year, Dan was trying to keep up with cleaning them up by himself, but as it got worse, it became overwhelming. We hired Sindt’s Tree Service to come up for multiple days to help Dan with cutting and chipping dead trees. We have created some large clearings where groups of 30-50 trees had died. There are still enough healthy trees though that it still looks like a forest and we are really happy about that. Dan has been sowing native grass seed in the bigger open areas such as Idaho fescue, blue wildrye, and California melic.

Mark and Sage have been going up to Pike regularly to help Dan salvaged as much good wood as they could to mill into lumber for the Petaluma barn project. Last year they milled up about 20,000 board feet of siding, flooring, and timbers, which have been stored in the big arena at the ranch, and are now starting to be used. This summer they milled up probably another 10,000 bf. It has actually made some very nice lumber. Dan is excited to share that they have improved their skills at getting the lumber to dry flat, and he is pretty proud of that. Everyone is really looking forward to seeing the big barn re-skinned with Pike lumber and looking good for a long time to come.

Here are some updated worksheets showing the change in soil biology in our Oak woodlands over time. Looks to me like most numbers go down significantly as soil moisture is reduced through the drier time of year. It’ll be interesting to continue tracking changes into next fall and winter.

Seasonal Oak Soil Biology Data

Seasonal Oak Soil Biology Averages

Below is a spreadsheet showing what data we have thus far for seasonally monitoring the biology of our Oak trial plots.

During the oak trials, we had three blocks with six plots in each block.  The white plot in each was the control, which received no tea or compost or foods.

For our seasonal data collection, we have been taking a sample from each of the three white plots on the same day of each month to see how the soil biology changes through the year.  The spreadsheet shows the average of the three samples for each date we have so far.

Seasonal Oak Averages

Seems like in the last three months, the protozoa are down overall, as are the total fungi. Normal seasonal pattern?

The week of December 17 SMI set up an oak nursery, planting approximately 400 acorns collected from the SMI property. See the picture below of the initial set-up. Upon returning from the holiday, I was curious to check in on the acorns…to find it had taken a beating by the heavy rains as well as scavenged by the local squirrels.

Next step, harvest more acorns (hopefully we can find more this time of year) and reseed. This time we will cover the planters with screens.

Tree Experiment Background:
In June of 2006, Sonoma Mountain Institute (SMI) began a replicated study on the effects of five different biological treatments for improving the health of diseased oak woodlands.

Tree Experiment Data Sheet

The experiment treatments (outlined below) were applied to three separate blocks of six plots each on the SMI property, and replicated in another block of six plots at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC).
The treatment applications were:
• White Plot: Control / Water
• Red Plot: Water plus 1 unit of fungal food
• Green Plot: ACT (Aerated Compost Tea)