The ongoing drought is starting to have quite an effect here in the Bay Area, and is especially evident in the Monterey Pines. Historically, these were planted with abandon all over the area, even though they really only do well near the coast. Driving down the highway, the brown, dead trees simply litter the embankments. The areas where we hike, even the reservoirs (where you’d assume the trees have stretched their roots to the water), are filled with struggling trees, mostly evergreen species.

The redwoods are starting to suffer, too. Again, they’ve been planted widely all over the inland areas, even though they are native to the coast and thrive on drippy, foggy conditions. The interior rarely gets fog.

And now we’re starting to notice the California live oaks, both coast live oaks and interior live oaks, are starting to succumb to the drought. It is getting very depressing.

Wherever we go, we hear the sound of chainsaws. Tree crews are out in force, trying desperately to stay ahead of the problem, but there are too many dead trees and not enough skilled arborists to stay on top of it.

In our own yard, we are watering less and less. I think most of the native and Mediterranean trees will be ok. But we have one Southern Magnolia (NOT planted by us, I hate it) which is starting to look a little peaked. I am thinking that it might be time to have it removed, and to replace it with something like a Desert Willow, which can thrive and look beautiful on far less water. Unfortunately, this means we will lose some shade on the house, but fortunately, it will increase the sun’s influence on our solar panels.

I think I will have to wait until the rains come and the tree companies are less busy. Right now, they have their hands full.