Planting of Acorns Slated for Saturday

Arborists have rescheduled for Saturday an acorn planting project that had been postponed after the recent firestorms, placing the event, appropriately enough, on Thanksgiving weekend.

“The idea is that we’re giving back trees to the earth, from which we are getting all the things in life: our food and the air we breathe,” said Rosi Dagit, the Calabasas city arborist who helped organize the event. “It’s also a time to give thanks for those of us who made it through the fire.”

Volunteers gathered more than 2,000 acorns during the past two months for planting at a former oak grove in Malibu Creek State Park near Calabasas. The planting, originally scheduled for Nov. 6, was postponed because hundreds of firefighters were using the site as a staging area during the Calabasas/Malibu fire.

Dagit said hundreds of volunteers are expected to help plant about 800 acorns at a location known as Torpin Plain, a grassy area owned by 20th Century Fox until 1974 and used as a parking lot during the filming of “How Green Is My Valley,” “Planet of the Apes” and other movies.

The other acorns will be given to volunteers and others who want to plant them on hillsides or in their yards, Dagit said. Several members of the Los Angeles County Foresters, a division of the county Fire Department, are expected to bring more than 100 oak seedlings, available free of charge for planting, Dagit said.

“Hopefully, people will want to plant oaks in places that burned or places where they want a tree,” Dagit said. “Oaks are beautiful, they hold up a hillside and they are preferable to pines and other types of tree that just explode during a fire.”

Dagit said a planted acorn will usually become a “real tree” of about 15 to 20 feet within eight years.

All volunteers are welcome at Saturday’s event, from 10 a.m. to noon, at 1925 Las Virgenes Road. The planting will be canceled in the event of rain, and parking for volunteers will be free, Dagit said.