The Climate Science Alliance was invited by our partners at the Pala Band of Mission Indians and UC Cooperative extension to co-host the 2021 Riparian Management Workshop: Save Our Oaks! This year’s Workshop focused on oak knowledge, climate change impacts, oak restoration and protection, and featured presentations by the Resilient Restoration project team. Missed the Workshop? View session recordings on today’s blog!
Presented annually by our partners at the Pala Band of Mission Indians, the Riparian Management Workshop is an opportunity for scientists, practitioners, educators, and community members to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing our communities and natural resources and learning what we can do to help. This year, the Climate Science Alliance, alongside the University of California Cooperative Extension, was excited to jump on board to support this year’s workshop entitled, “Save Our Oaks!” The free, two-day virtual event focused on discussion and learning about oak knowledge, oak restoration and protection. Sessions topics included Tribal Knowledge, Threats to Oaks, Climate Change and Oaks, and Oak Restoration Techniques.
As part of the second day’s climate change session, we heard from the Resilient Restoration research team on how their work is helping us better understand the impacts climate change will have on our region’s oaks.
Dr. Lluvia Flores-Rentería discussed how — thanks to the support from numerous Tribal partners — their team at San Diego State University has been conducting greenhouse experiments and DNA sequencing of regional oak species as part of a larger effort to assess the ability of different species to withstand the climatic changes happening in the region, such as drought.
Dr. Helen Regan continued the conversation by sharing how the University of California, Riverside research team is complementing this work by using climate modeling to assess how current and future climate change is impacting the Engelmann Oak (Quercus engelmannii) — the same methodology that is being used for many other plant species within the Resilient Restoration project.
The Climate Science Alliance team is grateful for the opportunity to connect with participants at the 2021 Riparian Management Workshop and for our continued partnership with the Pala Environmental Department.
Missed the 2021 Riparian Management Workshop?
View session recordings at tinyurl.com/2021riparianworkshop
Resilient Restoration is supported by California Strategic Growth Council’s Climate Change Research Program with funds from California Climate Investments—Cap-and-Trade Dollars at Work.