-
Click here to listen to this article -
Ten thousand times, Jim Crouch has picked up an acorn.
asserted
Crouch → click → acorn
Ten thousand times, he’s planted that acorn.
asserted
he → plant → acorn
And 10,000 is about the number of oak seedlings he’s entrusted to the hands of people who pledged to care for the tree that has become his mission and obsession.
asserted
that → entrust → tree
It began after he retired.
asserted
he → begin → ?
For years, he’d been a classroom science teacher in suburban San Diego County, and now, with that chapter behind him, the trees have become his life.
asserted
trees → become → him
He hopes to meaningfully contribute to the regrowth of burned Altadena.
asserted
He → hop → Altadena
California has Thousand Oaks, Sherman Oaks, Oak Park, Fair Oaks, even Oakland.
asserted
California → have → Oaks
That’s just in English.
asserted
That → ’ → English
They paint a picture of a California covered in oaks.
asserted
They → paint → oaks
But many regions have lost their oak canopy.
asserted
regions → lose → canopy
Some trees succumbed to insects after being weakened by drought.
asserted
trees → succumb → drought
Some were cut for developments, some were cut down illegally.
asserted
some → cut → developments
Some oaks have been cut after fire.
asserted
oaks → cut → fire
Crouch witnessed this loss.
asserted
Crouch → witness → loss
He felt it.
asserted
He → feel → it
He took to collecting acorns — the seeds of oak trees.
asserted
He → take → trees
He planted them in deep pots.
asserted
He → plant → pots
For the first eight years, he was a one-man operation working out of his backyard He began handing off the seedlings to others.
asserted
He → work → others
He began opening small nurseries, staffed by volunteers.
asserted
He → begin → volunteers
He named his organization Re-Oak California after a group in the Bay Area with the same name.
asserted
He → name → name
His motivation “started with climate, but then I learned you can’t do anything better for nature than protect the best keystone species.”
asserted
you → start → species
Oaks support a wide range of organisms, anchoring entire ecosystems, and also serve the vital task of storing carbon on a warming planet.
asserted
Oaks → support → planet
In a kind of treasure hunt, Crouch gathers all the acorns on private lands.
asserted
Crouch → gather → lands
He uses a hunting app to identify who owns which patch of remote land, then mails the property owner a letter asking for permission to gather.
asserted
who → use → permission
A growing cadre of volunteers increasingly helps with the next step, the actual harvest, scooping acorns off the ground and into bags and buckets.
asserted
cadre → grow → bags
That’s in part because Crouch is 75, and a bicycle accident has him using a cane.
asserted
him → ’ → cane
“My constant companion,” he says.
asserted
he → say → companion
Recently, one volunteer leveled up Crouch’s game by making him a mapping app that includes not only the property ownership information but also tree locations from the app iNaturalist, layered together with research from Victoria Sork, a UCLA professor and dean of life sciences, who has studied oak trees for more than 30 years.
asserted
who → level → years
Sork’s lab, along with the Nature Conservancy, is sequencing oak DNA to identify which trees are best built to survive a hotter, drier California.
asserted
trees → sequence → California
The goal is to put those findings to work on the ground by planting acorns from trauma-affected trees that still survive.
asserted
that → put → trees
In other words, the toughest oaks could help produce the next generation.
uncertain
oaks → help → generation
It’s a strategy Sork hopes can make California’s forests more resilient to climate change — something she’s hoping Crouch can help her with.
asserted
Crouch → ’ → her
For Crouch, it’s a partnership he’s still a little starstruck about.
asserted
he → ’ → Crouch
He compares getting a call from Sork to being asked for shooting tips from NBA star Stephen Curry.
asserted
He → compare → Curry
Sork sees the value in the partnership too.
asserted
Sork → see → partnership
“My best role is to generate knowledge and then partner with the people who are trying to get things going,” she says.
asserted
she → generate → people
Crouch, she adds, is one of the keys to getting her research “out from the ivory tower to the practitioners.”
asserted
research → add → practitioners
On a recent Tuesday, Crouch steered his 2011 Nissan Frontier from his home in Escondido up to La Cañada High School off the 210 Freeway.
asserted
Crouch → steer → Freeway
This is where Re-Oak is opening its first nursery in the Los Angeles area, intended to serve hard-hit Altadena.
asserted
Oak → open → Altadena
“It’s a bit of a challenge because I can’t be there every day, you know?” Crouch says.
asserted
Crouch → ’ → challenge
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
