CALABASAS : Work Begins on Restoring Oak Grove

More than 150 volunteers have stockpiled acorns to begin the decades-long process of rehabilitating a former oak grove in Calabasas that was destroyed by cattle grazing, nearby development and Hollywood film crews.

“This was abused land,” said Calabasas city arborist Rosi Dagit, gesturing across 45 acres of Malibu Creek State Park known as Torpin Plain. “It’s going to be a while before it’s whole again.”

During the past two weeks, preschoolers and senior citizens, nature buffs and simply curious local residents collected well over 1,000 “viable” acorns from coast live oak and valley oak trees, which are native to the area, Dagit said.

On Nov. 6, more volunteers will plant the acorns. Under good conditions, acorns will become 15-foot oak trees in about 10 years, but will not reach full maturity for several more decades, Dagit said.

The flat, grassy Torpin Plain, now the site of a park information center, was owned by 20th Century-Fox until 1974 and was used as a parking lot during the filming of “How Green Is My Valley,” “Planet of the Apes” and other movies, Dagit said.

That, along with earlier cattle grazing in the area, compacted the soil, making it difficult for acorns to take root, Dagit said.

The land also is barren of young oak trees because grasses introduced to the land by Spanish settlers have choked acorn growth, Dagit said, and because birds that disperse acorns have dropped in number because of development in the region.

“We are helping the birds do their work,” Dagit told a group of acorn gatherers from Children’s Corner in Topanga Canyon last week.

Dagit showed the preschoolers how to leach the bitter taste from acorns in the tradition of the area’s Chumash Indians and to choose only acorns that sink in water for planting.

Children’s Corner teacher Shirley Vernale said she hopes that her pupils’ unconcealed excitement over collecting acorns may someday grow into an interest in preserving the environment.

“They already love nature,” Vernale said. “But the more they can learn about the importance of trees, the better.”