SIMI VALLEY : Park District Wants to Plant 5,000 Oaks

The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District hopes to plant 5,000 oak trees this spring during its third consecutive volunteer planting program.

This year, instead of planting saplings raised in a nursery, the district wants to encourage residents of Simi Valley and Oak Park to simply gather and bury acorns.

Because squirrels and other animals are likely to smell the buried acorns and dig them up, the park district is purchasing 10,000 biodegradable tubes that push into the ground around the acorn. Participants will be asked to put two acorns in each tube.

The total budget for the program is $4,180, including shipping and freight for the tubes. Thousand Oaks-based Amgen recently pledged $1,000 toward the project.

Although there are many mature oak trees in and around Simi Valley and Oak Park, park officials said the growth of new trees has been hampered by overgrazing, drought and development.

In the last two years, volunteers working with the park district have planted nearly 2,000 small oaks.

Sharon Hamilton, volunteer coordinator for the park, said the district hopes to work with area middle schools in tracking the success of this year’s plantings.