LTWCA Newsletter - February/March 2002
State of the Road
Jay Wilson has written a well crafted letter to the City of Palo Alto to remind them of their commitment to maintain their section of Los Trancos Rd. The LTWCA Board is sending a follow-up letter urging them to act on this matter. Please contact Gale Smith, 851-4683, or Jay Wilson, 851-7308, if you would like to help in this effort.
Zoning Committee News
The Zoning Committee met on February 12. The topics discussed were: 1) the sewer process which is going forward slowly, 2) the Riparian Corridor Ordinance which will be reintroduced this Spring by the County, and 3) the Jean Rasch rezoning petition which has garnered support from approximately one-third of the households in the Woods. The committee also discussed various Floor Area Ratio equations. The next meeting will be March 12, 7:00 pm at 159 Ramona Road. Everyone is welcome to attend. For questions and information, please call Armin Staprans at 851-7403.
Submitted by Armin Staprans
Emergency News
Board Members and Emergency Cluster Leaders keep 27 April open. There will be an Emergency Training. Set aside the date now. More information will follow.
The Woods needs people trained in Disaster Search and Rescue! If anything happens, we will have to help ourselves. Learn how to identify hazards, search a building, and extricate a victim. Woodside Fire Dept. will conduct the training on 9 March from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Call Gaylynne Mann at 851-1594 to register.
Our sincere thanks go to Michael Glenn and David Lowin for generously donating the funds to purchase two First Aid Bags! The kits will be stored at Michael GlennÕs house in District IV and at David LowinÕs house in District II. We would be thrilled to accept donations for two more First Aid Bags. Please call Carol Wagner at 851-8675 to donation.
In the process of getting your household ready for an emergency, here is a good source of ready-to-eat meals, some of which keep up to 10 yrs. The meals are not freeze dried but are cooked and sealed in high strength pouches.
Web site: http://theepicenter.com/mre_military_meal_ready_to_eat.html
or The Epicenter.com, 384 Wallis #2, Eugene, OR 97402, (541) 684-0717.
Submitted by Carol Wagner
Sewer News
The application for sewers is now out of our hands as West Bay Sanitary District has given it over to LAFCO. We are now working with San Mateo County to be our financing sponsor. At this point it is impossible to guess a timeline for the process, as we are now dealing with two governmental agencies whose wheels turn very slowly.
Submitted by Julie Duncan and Gale Smith
District I News
Joan Warmbrunn, who moved here in the 1950s, died on 18 December. After a long bout with osteoporosis and then cancer, Joan was given tender care by Hospice in her last days. She worked both at Peninsula School in Menlo Park and many years at Stanford University as a Research Assistant. Her brave spirit will be missed.
District III News
The Los Trancos WoodsÕ creatures would like to thank Anne Baldwin for cleaning up the human trash around their homes in the Woods. They appreciate her caring attitude.
Town of Portola Valley Activities
- Town Council Meetings are being held on Wednesdays, 27 Feb., 13 & 27 Mar., at 8 p.m. in the Historic Schoolhouse.
- Planning Commission Meetings are being held on Wednesdays, 20 Feb., 6 & 20 Mar., at 8 p.m. in the Historic Schoolhouse.
Sudden Oak Death Syndrome
ÒAs you know Sudden Oak Death is now a serious problem in the Bay Area. It is affecting large populations of Coast Live Oak as well as other species of oaks. It is thought that Sudden Oak Death is due to a fungus which invades the tree. This fungus attracts the Ambrosia Beetle which bores into the tree and causes it to die suddenly. Now the disease is spreading to the redwoods. There has been no cure. Pesticides have been used to kill the beetles but they don't solve the problem or save the trees.Ó Editors note: So far SOD has not been found in the Woods according to McClenahan Tree Service, but it could appear here in the future. More information on prevention will be in the next newsletters.
Excerpts from Cindy RussellÕs e-mail
Next Board Meeting - 6 March, 7:00 p.m., at 21 Old Spanish Trail. Collection of dues and emergency monies and dissemination of emergency information will be discussed. For minutes of the last meeting, please see the LTWCA Web Site or your District Representative.
Please help us with the dues collection and emergency information handout. Contact your District Rep. NOW to make this happen before 1 March. THANK YOU!
Los Trancos Woods (LTWCA) Web Site
The web site address is: The group e-mail list is:
http://lostrancoswoods.org/ ltwca@yahoogroups.com
Our sincere thanks to Jerry Jensen for maintaining this site.
Kudos to Alex Kostrikin for graciously copying all our handouts in a timely fashion.
As you know Sudden Oak Death is now a serious problem in the Bay
Area. It is affecting large populations of Coast Live Oak as well as
other species of oaks. It is thought that Sudden Oak Death is due to
a fungus which invades the tree. This fungus attracts the Ambrosia
Beetle which bores into the tree and causes it to die suddenly. Now
the disease is spreading to the redwoods. There has been no cure.
Pesticides have been used to kill the beetles but they don't solve
the problem or save the trees.
Ralph Zingaro, a Cornell trained plant pathologist and
horticulturist, will give another perspective on the problem. His
research shows that the root cause is nutritional not the fungus. He
feels that the acid rain and fog from air pollution is leaching out
valuable nutrients from the tree thus causing, not a sudden, but a
slow decline in the health of the tree. The tree then becomes
susceptible to the fungus. Beetles which come in to feed on the
fungus then become the tertiary problem.
This is similar to a scenario seen on the East Coast 25 to 30 years
ago where the Dogwood tree decline was ultimately traced directly to
acid rain after the Forest Service for ten years stated it was due to
a fungus. It is well known that air pollution and acid rain has
caused the forests in Germany to die and is causing the Parthenon in
Athens, Greece to slowly disintegrate.
Mr Zingaro will show photographs of Sudden Oak Death and how to
identify it. He will then discuss the
underlying causes and how to treat the tree nutritionally. In general
he recommends fertilizing your trees well to replace the leached out
minerals. For more information you can visit his website at
www.Bioscape.com.
Note: A resident in larkspur I spoke with used Mr. Zingaro's
nutritional advice 2 years ago on 2 trees with sudden oak death. Now
they are the healthiest of the 40 trees on her property and are
resisting the aphid infestation that has hit her other trees. The
leaves of her coast live oak came back green and the weeping from the
bark has disappeared. I can give you her number if you want to speak
to her. You may forward this message as you wish.
For more in formation you can call Acterra at 650-962-9876 and ask to
speak with Velma