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barren. The grassy vegetation is mostly sedges (Carex spp.). The shrubs including poison <br /> oak, wild grape, snowberry, blackberry, and elderberry. Buttonwillow, cottonwood and <br /> willows occur in distinct clusters, usually associated with low wet spots. More specific <br /> information about the general aspect and composition of the mixed oak riparian forest is <br /> presented in section 2. <br /> Forest History <br /> In order to understand how a forest grows one must look inside the trees. The annual rings <br /> laid down around the tree's trunk can be used to age a tree and to evaluate its growth rate <br /> over time. Samples are obtained either by coring or cutting slabs from living trees. <br /> A preliminary stand-age analysis was conducted by UC geographer Scott Mensing in <br /> 1990. Mr. Mensing analyzed the rings of slabs taken from five stumps which had been <br /> piled into stump yards on the Ranch. In this small sample of five trees, three had <br /> established in 1949-50. Mr. Mensing hypothesized that the Western forest is made up of <br /> trees of similar ages which established in 1949-1950. This idea is supported by early air <br /> photos (1940) in which narrow strips of bare ground are visible between the trees in the <br /> western forest indicating that the canopy was not closed at that time. Today, when the <br /> western forest is viewed from the air almost no bare ground is visible. In addition, the <br /> overall aspect of the western forest in the 1940 picture appears to be lower than the adjacent <br /> eastern forest. In suggesting agents capable of initiating an even aged stand, Mr. Mensing <br /> indicated catastrophic floods as a probable cause. <br /> Forest Hydroloav <br /> The forest and the river are closely interrelated in a dynamic, but now drastically altered, <br /> relationship. An axiom of hydrology states that unimpeded rivers overflow their banks on <br /> Buckeye Ranch Resource Plan (November, 1993) <br /> 167 <br />