Many people have a fear of arachnids. Some think of a spider hanging delicately from a single thread inching down closer and closer to their sleeping mouth. Others, fear a scorpion that has made a resting spot out of a shoe and would gladly defend itself against encroaching toes. Others yet, fear a tick that hitches a ride on a blade of grass, makes its way to your skin and buries its head in for a delightful meal before you have ever noticed it was there. Arachnids can make people feel squeamish or in some cases, outright disgusted. Even as a park ranger that loves the outdoors, I can tell you that it is very difficult for me to overcome my fear of spiders. Just watching a harmless Tarantula move across the ground, I can feel my face contort into a sneer with every one of it’s slow methodical steps.

So, what if I told you we have nothing to fear? That we shouldn’t avoid arachnids or fear them because arachnids are always with us and always have been? In fact, we humans, every last one of us, have microscopic arachnids that live on our faces. Yep, it’s true. These microscopic monsters are called Demodex Mites. These mites burrow into our pores and eat the grease we produce on our faces. Now, there is no need to rush off to a mirror to see if I’m telling you the truth. They are much too small to see with the naked eye, but trust me they are there. Species of Demodex Mites can be found on every mammal on planet Earth except for the Platypus and it’s egg laying kin. In fact, the poor Field Mouse has four different species of mites that call it’s face home.

We humans actually aren’t home to one species of microscopic face spiders, but two. The Demodex folliculorum is a longer and skinnier mite that lives closer to the surface of the skin while our other friend, the Demodex brevis is shorter and wider and lives deeper in the pores. One would think that these two mite species that share the same host would be closely related. It turns out that they are not. Under closer study, it was revealed that D. brevis was more closely related to dog mites than its neighbor D. folliculorum.

It is unknown however how we got them. Some surmise that they have always been with us since we evolved from fur bearing creatures and that our mites evolved with us. Others believe that we may have picked them up when we domesticated animals. Possibly our affinity for dogs, cats, or livestock brought us these little gifts. Some others think that it could be both. They believe that D. folliculorum is our native mite and that we were introduced to D. brevis when we brought home man’s best friend. Though these are all possible, their origins are still a mystery.

Even though their origins are mysterious, they can help tell us something about our own past. We can look back at early humans and see their Demodex Mites. While D. folliculorum populations are similar to one another everywhere on Earth, it is believed that D. brevis mites may be genetically different depending on where you are from. Currently samples have only been taken from the United States and China. With this information scientists discovered that roughly 40,000 years ago as East Asian and European populations diverged and spread out from one another, their D. brevis mites did as well. Some think that the deeper burrowing habits of the D. brevis mean that they are shared among people less frequently as their D. folliculorum neighbors.

So remember the next time you look at a spider coming your way and recoil in disgust it’s probably not coming for you at all, it’s just coming by to visit it’s cousins that are living on your face.

For two years, Conni Naylor, Mary Ann Hannon, and Michael White have walked the park out to the upper property, along the trails into the rolling hills and the sprawling oak savannah. Their destination each time has been a canyon housing oak trees. They’ve been hiking this regular route once a month for two years to see change—changes of the park throughout the seasons, changes in the grasslands, and especially changes of the trees—after the fire. 

August 16th, 2020, thousands of dry lightning strikes occurred through much of Northern California—including Sycamore Grove Park. Part of the northernmost reaches of what would be called the SCU Lightning Complex fires, the fire in Sycamore Grove Park burned approximately 180 acres through grassland and oak savannah. It is the effects of and recovery from these fires that Conni, Mary Ann, and Michael have volunteered their time to observe these past two years. 

Five valley oaks, charred and blackened by the fire, were chosen by former LARPD Ranger Amy Wolitzer and Mary Ann for study. Trunks burned, cambium exposed, leaves scorched—all five of these trees bore varying scars from the wildfire. And within weeks they all showed signs of recovery. 

How does an oak tree recover when as much as 100% of its canopy no longer has green leaves? What leaves weren’t torched in the active fire and burned away remained dead on the trees, “scorched” and no longer able to photosynthesize. Over their months of observations, the volunteers discovered that the oaks began to put out new leaves in surprising places—along their stems, trunks, and branches—a kind of recovery strategy known as “epicormic growth.” These previously dormant buds, cued by the presence of fire and increased exposure to light, helped these trees produce the sugars they need to stay alive. Now, two years later, 2 of the 5 trees have even recovered enough to begin producing acorns again! 

Oaks were not the only plants the volunteers observed recovering from the fire. What was blackened earth in August 2020 became a lush, green grassland beneath the oak trees with the first winter rains only months later. Pinks, whites, yellows, and purples hailed the return of native wildflowers: checkerbloom, fiddleneck, yarrow, brodiaea, and many more. Like the oaks, these native plants are adapted to fire, with annual lifestyles that rely on a healthy seedbank to return year after year, or underground storage like bulbs to survive above ground events. Elsewhere in the park, perennial native bunchgrasses burned above ground, but survived as the vast majority of their biomass was safe underground. 

The Burned Oak Project shines a light on something both new and old. In the past couple years, I’ve seen the phrase “new normal” tossed around in regards to wildfires in California. But clearly, it’s not new. Native plants have evolved with fire for tens of thousands of years. And in many cases that went hand in hand with native peoples’ tending of the wilderness: cultural burns to renew the land, invigorate resources, and prevent large, out of control fires from occurring. It isn’t the fires that are new; it’s the severity, brought on by fire suppression and development, and now exacerbated by climate change. 

Of the five valley oaks studied, four survived, resilient in the face of fire and drought because those are the conditions California oaks have adapted to. But their future resiliency, and ours, is less certain. I believe that this volunteer-driven study at Sycamore Grove Park is a great example of the intersection of community science, open spaces, and interpretation—motivated individuals and a willing organization putting value and expressing curiosity into our park, its natural processes, and its wellbeing. I also think that it connects to a bigger conversation of how local parks agencies and community groups can combat and adapt to climate change by championing native ecosystems. Because even with this study, it isn’t fire that’s the problem. Climate change is.   

As mega-droughts, colossal wildfires, and extreme weather events are becoming the “new normal” for California, we have a unique opportunity to build resiliency and combat the source of these problems with our open spaces. Protecting open spaces with fire adapted, drought resistant, and carbon sequestering native species can be a critical piece in how we take action at the community level.  

The complete report of the Burned Oak Project and its presentation at the September 2022 LARPD Board of Directors meeting can be found online at LARPD.org. If you are interested in learning more, I wholeheartedly invite you to join ranger staff and the “Oak Tree Team” volunteers on February 11th to walk the study site and experience for yourself the park’s recovery.  

Hello,

Happy February! After an exciting, stormy, and wet January, Open Space Staff is excited to finally be up and running as usual this month! Last month, Livermore received it's annual amount of rainfall (~15 inches) in three weeks! While most of our trails are open there are still some areas of the park that are going to take a while to reopen. There are three areas that we are working on that need more work due to the amount of water we received in January. The erosion and flooding that occurred in the park really highlight the power of water.

First, the Nature Area, where there are trails that were completely washed away needs lot of work. All of our creek crossings have been cut away. Piles of sediment have been moved and shifted by the floods. Some of which are several feet high. We will be working on recreating, and perhaps in some cases, creating new trails throughout this area of Sycamore Grove.

The second area that needs to be fixed is a large section of our paved path in the middle of the park. About a 30 foot section of the paved path was washed away over a period of a week during the floods. We are not sure how long until it will be completely fixed, but we can say it won't be done this month. However, we will continue to have our detour around the broken path accessible so you can venture to the other side of Sycamore Grove.

The third area we are working on is the upper property...the hills of Sycamore Grove. There was a lot of on-trail erosion that occurred from all the rainwater runoff. It created deep channels alongside the main trails. In some places, there were mudslides that block the trails. So, again, it will be a lot of work to get this taken care of but we are working on it!

Open Space Staff is hoping to have a few Volunteer Days open to the public in the near future to help with park maintenance. Follow the park on social media (linked at the bottom of the newsletter) to stay up to date on the latest happenings and opportunities in Sycamore Grove Park.

Thank you for reading and visiting!

All the best,

Dora O'Brien

LARPD Naturalist and Valley Wilds Editor

P.S. Thank you all for the lovely comments and messages on social media regarding the work I did to keep the public updated about the condition of Sycamore Grove and flooding last month. It was much appreciated! Stay tuned for more!