Jul 1

Jul 1 Oaks

This summer, our muse is a little different. It’s the old oak that fell this past January at Poco Farm.

We lost a lot of trees in Meiners Oaks this year, but this one was extra-special. I’ve heard it was 800 years old. Grace Malloy told me the tree was once used as a message board for passing travelers. I have no idea if any of that’s true, but the tree is well-known. As new contributor, Andy Carlson told me:

“The loss of this perhaps last pre-European arrival Valley Oak in the wetland area hit me strongly, as I admired its longevity every time I passed it since the making of the street for the housing development. I do remember the tree from my school years as I both played in the orange groves and later walked home from school, passing through about three routes through this area to get to Lomita Rd.“

I have a big oak that looms over my house on South Padre Juan. I’m terrified of it. It seems to be right in the same line of several trees that fell this past rainy season on Encinal and Padre Juan. The last one took out a neighbor’s home, raised and cracked the foundation right in half. When you looked under the lifted roots, there was running water, like an underground stream.

I’ve met a lot of new (to me) people lately. I met a woman named Mia Riddle, passionate about conservation, who wants to encourage everyone to plant oaks. I met an ornithologist named Peter Larramendy at one of Kate’s dinners, who is studying the feasibility of reintroducing the Island Scrub Jay on Channel Islands, where it no longer exists, in order to help restore oak populations. Peter works at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, which is an absolute gem of a Museum; a must-see for artists. I met a young woman who’s returned from Ojai after graduating from Bard, Yosephina Peters. I’ve tapped her to tell Peter’s story.

I’ve been doing a little design work for Grace and Dan at Poco Farm. They have an exciting new educational venture, and the old oak that fell, which they are leaving in place (because fallen oaks are important to the ecosystem, too), has served as a sort of muse to them. Drew Mashburn, whose grandparents used to own Poco Farm, remembers the tree well. He’s written a few words on the subject.

A Ventura woodworker, Jeffrey Schulz, has been harvesting Ojai’s fallen oaks to make furniture. He has shared a bit about his process.

So anyway, oaks are on my mind. I want them to be on yours, too. This will be the first season in a while that fulfills VORTEX’s original mission of bringing you a collection of stories that truly connect to each other. We are able to do that because of subscriber support. Please consider joining OLO.

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FIVE NEW CONTRIBUTORS · A profile of a local biologist · Ventura County's best-kept secret museum · Ojai's lost highway · A local woman's campaign to get you to plant oaks · An artist crafts beautiful chairs from Ojai fallen wood · What's cooking at Poco Farm* (*to be continued)