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having soft attributes in shape and texture. In contrast, an example of an incompatible plant in an oak woodland environment would be a redwood tree, having a sharp contrasting crown, or a purple leaf plum, having colors in sharp contrast to an oak. There are valid reasons for planting drought tolerant plants around oaks. Having evolved in winter wet, summer dry climatic conditions, California oaks receiving too much summer water can become infected by pathogenic fungi, such as armillaria root rot. Planting drought tolerant plants which do not require much water therefore encourages more ideal conditions for the long-term preservation of oak. With the well-drained soils at Buckeye Ranch, moderate watering, provided the soils are allowed to periodically dry out, would be permissible. Drought tolerant plants may or may not, be natives. The concept of a "native" is a relative one. Strictly speaking, the concept of a native plant is not only regional, but also local encompassing a scale at the soil, micro-site level. For restoration purposes,only plants adapted at the local,micro-site level should be planted, since these restored habitats must be self-sustaining. For landscape purposes, the use of natives can be expanded to a regional or even state-wide basis. This is often not unreasonable, since some additional watering and gardening maintenance is expected in these human occupied environments. Native plants may be preferred to exotic ones, nonetheless, given that native wildlife species are probably more generally adapted to utilize plant groups which are native on a regional basis. From the standpoint of drought tolerance and aesthetics alone, there would appear no difference between an exotic species and a plant not native to the microsite but native on a regional basis. Buckeye Ranch Resource Plan (November, 1993) 242