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[RC] Black Oak trees - Lucy Chaplin Trumbull

Sandy:
> I just bought a piece of property that is covered
> in black oak tress.   I had a fencing company bid
> the fencing who is knowledgable in horses and he
> says horses can die from eating the trees.  Anyone
> in the Georgetown.Garden Valley, Cool area know if
> I should have the trees removed?

:)

I'm in Garden Valley. Your horses likely won't die,
but the trees might.

We have black oak, live oak, and ponderosa pine in
our paddocks.

Apart from getting sap on themselves, they leave the
pines alone, but apparently oak bark is *tasty* as
once they start on that, they can't leave it alone
(and our oaks also look like someone has given them
a pudding bowl hair cut - where the low hanging branches
stop short at horse-reachable-height).

I had to wrap the trunks of our oaks in copious amounts
of chicken wire (and check often for gaps), as the pones
did a great job working on ringing the trees. Luckily I
caught it just in time, so no real harm done.

A friend in Pilot Hill lost almost all the oaks in
her paddock when the horses ringed every single one
of them. So much for her nice private vegetation buffer
between her house and the road.

The horses also munch on the acorns and don't seem to
have had any ill effects from it (we only have a couple
of oaks in each paddock, so they aren't gorging, mind).

I say don't worry about the trees, just make sure you've
got defensible space from fire.


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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull
elsietee AT foothill DOT net
Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, California
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