Yosemite Nature Notes – Episode 17 – Black Oaks
After a final editing push and a few technical hiccups, I’m pleased to announce that I just completed the newest episode of Yosemite Nature Notes. This one features my favorite tree in Yosemite Valley, the Black Oak, showing the tree in its various seasonal moods, and also telling the story of the mighty acorn and the importance that this seed plays in the lives of animals and people. I’m excited to have three people making their YNN debut in this one, in particular Julia Parker, basket weaver, acorn pounder and cultural demonstrator extraordinaire.
I’d like to thank Erik Westerlund and Bill Kuhn for appearing as well. This episode is my most collaborative production yet. I had editing help from my good friend Ryan Christensen, Brent Bain from Yosemite Valley composed a great new piece of music, and as always, Josh Helling helped me get some of the great shots of these awesome trees. I hope you like it!
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Lovely!
Great work as always! The segment with Julia was my favorite part. I think I could listen to her all day and never get bored.
When will this show up on itunes?
I was impressed to learn that one of the oaks in the film was 250 – 300 years old. Do you know the ages of the oldest black oaks in Yosemite?
Oaks are hard to accurately date, since coring into the hardwood is a tricky thing. Black oaks are estimated to live up to 400 years, perhaps even 500 in some cases. Also, since an oak can fail in snow storm or burn in a fire and still sprout new branches, it seems as if they are immortal. If we could date the tree roots accurately, we might find that these trees are living for 1000’s of year!