Oak Trees

They were between a rock and a hard place. So they went out on a limb. That's the short version of how Pearl and Bill Sloan ended up with a 50-foot oak tree in the middle of their living room. The tree dominates the couple's Topanga Canyon home. Its huge branches poke through their ceiling in five places. Outside, its leafy canopy covers their house like a giant beach umbrella. For 57 years, the oak has dominated the Sloans' life too.

A fungus that is killing oaks along parts of the California coastal region has been found in a common garden plant, further complicating efforts to contain the mysterious affliction and track its origins. UC scientists announced last week that the organism responsible for "sudden oak death" had been detected in commercial rhododendron stock grown near some Santa Cruz County oaks dying of the disease.

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against a landowner accused of chopping down protected California live oak trees in Sunland. The misdemeanor complaint against Los Angeles bail bondsman Dan Majors, 62, and his company, Major Land Co., alleges that 12 mature oaks were removed from a hillside in the 10300 block of Sunland Boulevard without a city permit.

In this bucolic mountain town of artists and environmentalists, oak trees keep falling on people while officials struggle to find eco-friendly ways of stopping it. The latest incident occurred Wednesday when an oak dropped a 24-foot-long branch on three people attending a concert in Libbey Park. No one was seriously injured but the incident sparked new debate between those looking to protect the trees and others trying to keep them from flattening residents.

Braving the rain, five Boy Scouts spent Monday shaking thousands of acorns off oak trees in Thousand Oaks that face dates with a chain saw. The Scouts were launching a reforestation effort, applauded by many in the city. But the reason for it, the planned removal of 50 mature trees to make way for a dam, remains controversial.

It's being called appalling, heartbreaking and alarming. Concerned homeowners, researchers and conservationists are warily watching an oak tree epidemic spread across coastal California. Entomologists, plant pathologists, ecologists, geographers and foresters are searching for answers. Researchers cannot give exact numbers, but they are certain that thousands of tan oaks, coast live oaks and black oaks have died as a result of a disease complex termed "sudden oak death."

Two oak trees growing in Golden Gate Park are infected with sudden oak death, the first appearance in San Francisco of the killer botanical disease. The disease, which has appeared in 14 California counties, has killed thousands of oak trees, mostly along the coast.

When Phil and Ana Hernandez's first child, Jane, was born, they planted a crape myrtle in the front yard of their Echo Park home. Now 11 years old, Jane's tree is about 25 feet tall, a flowering beauty that has bestowed an unexpected bonus: It's worth about $2,000, not a bad return on the initial $5 investment. But you don't need the occasion of a new baby to reap the same profit. "Planting a tree should be the first priority for a new homeowner," says Corona landscape architect Kenneth K.

The previous night's winter storm has subsided, and the rising sun now punctures holes in the morning mist, casting the lush karri forest in a gentle silhouette. With the windows open, I cruise down the eucalyptus-lined highway. My eyes are on the road, but my mind is on the mission. I am prospecting for black gold. And I will find it here in Western Australia, 3 1/2 hours south of Perth. This is not the outsized outback of red dirt and snapping crocs and sweltering heat. South-Western Australia is a distinct territory -- verdant, enchanting and largely untouched . The treasure lies in the Great Southern Forests region, in groves of oak and hazelnut trees, away from the typical tourist spots of Oz. Sometimes, I think I am the sole proprietor of this secret, but then I remember that Thomas Keller, Ferran Adrià and Michael Mina know it too -- so well that they're already using Western Australia's Périgord black truffles, this black gold, this diamond of the kitchen, in their restaurants around the world.

The Simi Valley City Council voted Monday to expand its tree preservation ordinance to protect more trees. Owners of vacant lots now must obtain a tree-removal permit before cutting down any mature tree, said Jim Lightfoot, assistant city planner. A tree-removal permit is $175 plus $2 for every additional tree, Lightfoot said. The former ordinance only protected oak trees measuring at least 9 1/2 inches in diameter and historic trees on land scheduled for development.