Snow and Loss of a Giant

  The slow decline of the valley and majestic blue oaks of upper

 Carmel Valley progresses one by one. On January 24, 2008 the Vineyard Oak, with a family group of 17 Acorn Woodpeckers, fell to the ground. We had a wet, heavy snow that day. Many other trees fell, and many branches were down as the snow fell on many coast live oaks. One oak took out our electrical power for a day. The snow attracted the usual mob of looky-loos, many of whom had never seen snow. Tassajara Road and Carmel Valley Road through Hastings were a mob scene. We then had unrelenting rain through January 27, with flooding, plugged culverts, mud slides, rock slides, etc. We pretty much dug out by today. 

   However, the loss of the oak tree to the group of woodpeckers known as the "cavity" group, will be interesting to follow. We have no idea where they will go and how they will cope with the loss of their group nesting and resting holes, 10,000 carefully crafted holes to store acorns, and a great place to enjoy the view and use as a perch to go out and catch flies on the wing. 

A 40 ladder is shown in the photo below, top right. This is the tree where we installed the woodpecker cam. We did not recover the camera from the wreckage yet. 

 The photo of the snow was taken just because snow is relatively rare here. When the tree crashed down, Eric 

Walters was out and heard it. Yes, if a tree falls, it does make a sound. A large crack and the thunderous roar as it fell and hundreds of branches broke and were driven into the ground. 

Deer were eating the lichens and moss that had been growing high in the tree and are now at ground level. They are something you don't usually see.