A proposal to protect oak trees and streams has many in the wine industry worried.

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/Does-Napa-Need-to-Choose-Between-Grapevines-and-Oak-Trees

Consider the acorn. By kindergarten, most children know that the smooth, brown shell hides a secret: it’s a ‘baby oak with a lunch box,’ recalls Brent Reed, now Ecological Program Manager with Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation. Inside its weather and insect-resistant coat, every acorn is a live packet of waiting pre-programed cells, primed for growth, surrounded by a dense store of energy-rich carbohydrates and minerals. When conditions finally trigger its cells to begin growing, there’s enough food in the acorn’s pantry to build and drive a tap root as much as four feet down into the soil, create and unfurl a set of sugar-making leaves, and hoist them on a rigid mast into the sunlight.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/lifestyle/8052754-181/how-dedicated-sonoma-county-volunteers?artslide=6&slide=GAL

All the seasons are perfect for a walk in the forest to “take a bath.” The concept of forest bathing is Japanese. They call it “Shinrin-yoku.” It means “taking in the forest atmosphere” and is a medicinal infusion of nature when escaping from the noisy world we inhabit. To take this bath, walk silently through the woods and listen to birds, feel trees and plants, sit and meditate or just breathe in the aroma of the forest. It is important to be silent so you can hear the wind in the trees or water running in a creek. It is amazing what goes on in the wilderness when you stop to listen.

https://www.mymotherlode.com/news/local/354200/forest-bathing-for-all-seasons.html

More than two-thirds of California’s drinking water supply passes through or is stored in oak woodlands.

http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/columnists/bill-pramuk/bill-pramuk-s-trees-and-people-the-value-of-oak/article_747fc96f-050f-5f9b-94f0-ebb53f892a61.html

The report was released in December and contained some dire findings. Between 2013 and 2016, about 30 percent of the 110,000 acres of live woods in the local mountains have died.

https://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/articles/droughts-toll-on-oaks/