Habitat Structures
Annas hummingbird Credit: George Gentry U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
When you’re deciding where on your land to implement oak restoration, give priority to sites that have large, old oaks, as well as oaks of varying ages. Large, old oaks are particularly valuable as wildlife habitat.
When possible, choose restoration sites that are adjacent to good quality oak habitat because doing so will increase the size of an existing oak system, rather than create a new, small, and isolated oak habitat patch. If the option to expand a habitat patch does not exist, there is still value in creating new oak habitat patches.
The biodiversity of wildlife in your oak habitat depends in part on the variety of important structural components, such as saplings, young trees, old trees with low spreading limbs, snags, grassland areas, and shrubby areas. Healthy oak habitats have variability in the pattern of vegetation on the land, including clumping, open spaces, and areas of differing tree densities, rather than even tree spacing.
Oak stewardship guidelines by topic
Below you will find desired conditions representing a characteristic of a healthy, functioning oak ecosystem from the “Restoring Oak Habitats in Southern Oregon and North California: A Guide for Private Landowners” developed by the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network in collaboration with the Umpqua Oak Partnership. They also present guidelines to help you achieve each desired condition, and these guidelines can be applied to oak savanna, oak chaparral, oak woodland, and mixed oak-conifer habitats.
