______THE CALIFORNIA ACORN REPORT

Selfie/Where’s Kim Jong-un? edition Volume 18 The Official Newsletter of the California Acorn Survey 20 October 2014 Walt Koenig and Jean Knops, co-directors

Editor: Walt Koenig ______SUMMER PARTY TIME Next up was the ISBE meeting in New York City. If As has become traditional, summer—defined as the you don’t know what ISBE stands for, tough. (If you time in between when I return to Ithaca from Google it, the first entry you’ll get is the “Illinois California after the breeding season and when I go State Board of Education.” Spoiler alert: that’s not back to California from Ithaca for the acorn it. You get to guess between the next several entries, survey—consisted of a host of activities celebrating which include the “International Society for the forthcoming acorn-counting season. First was the Business Education” and the “International Standard long-anticipated visit by our good friends Ben and Bible Encyclopedia.”) Two things stood out at the Cate, who came all the way from Carmel Valley just meeting. First was the attendance of Phoebe, who to check out what happened to the concrete acorns has transferred to Cornell as—drum roll please!—an they lent us when we moved here and to see if there entomology major interested in the Standard Bible was any truth to the story we’d been feeding them Enyclopedia! No wait, that’s not right—I meant in that we have jobs here. I’m not sure we convinced behavioral ecology, which is, after all, the vocation them otherwise on the latter point, but at least the of the rest of the family, with the exception of Dale, concrete acorns are still on our front steps and we who continues to pursue a career in the Dark Arts of did do our best to show off the local sights, which topology and combinatorics. are indeed lovely for those of you for whom a vacation in the Finger Lakes has never even crossed your mind. In the end, the most impressive show was the fireflies at dusk from our back deck, an exhibition that almost made up for everything else in the area being closed, apparently, we eventually concluded, in honor of their visit. The fireflies almost make up for the winters, and are certainly one of the wonders of nature, especially if you’re entomologically inclined, which, as it happens, is a direction the youngest member of the Family Unit appears to be headed. ê The Phoebster at the ISBE meeting in New York City having the time of her life talking with Bruce Lyon, an old friend from UC Santa Cruz, and Natasha, Eric’s Ph.D. student studying dispersal strategies of acorn woodpeckers at Hastings. They’re no doubt busy discussing the stunning plenary on preening behavior just given by the surprise celebrity speaker mingling in the background.

In any case, it’s great fun having Phoebe get involved in the kind of esoterica that both her parents have wallowed in for the majority of their careers. Indeed, it portended what has thus far been a wonderfully enjoyable fall having her at Cornell All bee’d out and ready to partay: Janis, me, and Phoebs model where we irregularly run into her on campus. The the Dyce Lab beekeeping hats at the end-of-summer bash that latter is in fact more than occasional, since Phoebe Phoebe (who worked there for Michael, one of our more bizarre is, among other things, taking my Advanced Acorn and favorite NB&B grad students in costume behind the truck) Studies course. Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime and her coworkers hosted in August before the semester started. Not just one, but TWO honeys! 1

opportunity to spend several hours a week lecturing one’s progeny with total impunity!

The second outstanding feature of the ISBE meeting, besides the symposia on “Business Education and Acorn Counting” and “The Acorn’s Role in the New Testament,” was the chance to visit with our friends Marty and Andy. We spent many a fine time with these guys in the old days when our kids were small and it was great exploring New York with them. I look forward to visiting them in Halifax where I intend to start their kitchen remodel, even though, as Nick Carmen and Marianne’s wedding in Malibu on 14 August. is traditional, I only plan on having time to complete We weren’t sure about the guy performing the ceremony, but otherwise it was an awesome event. The Lebanese acorn the first step of tearing out the back wall of their old goulash was especially amazing! kitchen. In honor of both that sacred event and the birthday of our friend Steve, both of which were in August, Natalia, Steve’s SO, arranged for us to have dinner at Suzanne Fine Regional Cuisine (9013 New York 414, Lodi) overlooking Seneca Lake. The dinner— we got the five course farm-to-table tasting menu— was excellent, and the entire evening was quite lovely. We were particularly impressed by the street sign (“JANIS LA”) Steve and Natalia picked up at the Bouckville Antique Fair the prior weekend and gave to Janis for my birthday. I can only assume that the “Janis Lane” signs were being sold off because the street was renamed “Acorn Lane”. In any case, while I’m off the subject, our Investigative A selfie with Janis, Marty, and Andy playing hooky in Times Reporting Team was recently shocked to learn that Square during the ISBE meeeting. Meanwhile, a missing persons announcement blazes from the jumbotron on the right. no state has “acorns” as the official state nut, a distinction conferred on almonds (California), Back from The Big Apple, we did our best to relax pecans (Alabama and Texas), and hazelnuts and celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary before (Oregon). Clearly this is an oversight that the heading off for a long weekend in LA where Bill California Acorn Survey lobbying department will Carmen and Karen Nardi’s son Nick was preparing need to work on rectifying in the near future. to celebrate his 0th anniversary. Bill, as you know, is the official drinks coordinator and Karen the legal counsel of the California Acorn Survey. Meanwhile, Nick participated in the 2007 survey and is working his way up to being the official documentarian of the entire enterprise. The wedding was fabulous; the Yaqui Acorn Dancers took everyone by surprise, as did the gourmet acorn casserole. Good work, guys!

After the wedding, we did some antique shopping, took my stepfather Keith out to lunch, and spent an evening with our friends Brad and Louise in the new house they recently purchased, having apparently decided that the LA real estate market had finally Besides dinner, Steve and I celebrated our birthdays by attending the roller derby bout between the Ithaca reached its peak. Then it was back to Ithaca, in time BlueStockings and the Rideau Valley Sirens. Here’s a selfie (amost, anyway) for my birthday! commemorating the event taken while the referees debate one of the more contentious calls in the background.

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Speaking of birthdays, we closed out the summer by Bill in front of travelling to Ron Mumme and Sarah Sargent’s house one of the th larger-than- in Meadville, PA, for Ron’s 60 birthday party. Ron, life sculptures of course, is one of the Founding Fathers of the at the 2014 California Acorn Survey, having had the dubious Burning Man distinction of going out with me back on that fateful Festival, day in October 1980 to count the first trees at where he goes every year to Hastings. Since then, Ron has gone through fine-tune his extensive counseling and hopes to get out of rehab in gin-and-tonic just a few more years. Keep up the good work, Ron! mixing skills in anticipation of the acorn survey. Photo mostly by Karen Nardi.

The other irregularity was picking up son Dale at the San Jose train station, which I did in the minivan while Bill and Jean toured the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, near where we have a tanoak site. All went smoothly and we succeeded in reuniting for the celebratory Arrival Day dinner at the Noodle Bar in Seaside well before Ron at his 60th birthday bash in Meadville near the end of its 8 pm closing time. August, nostagically trying to hold back the tears as he brings out the prized photo of his long-lost twin brother, Kim Jong The next three days were taken up with the Hastings Mumme. Separated since birth, Ron still dreams of a reunion. count (year 35!), going through the stack of mail in Good luck, Ron! I’ll be sure to let you know if I see him. my office, and hosting a potluck for the fall interns, ACORNS ARE AWESOME DEPARTMENT which otherwise get shortchanged in the social activites department. Finally, on Sunday morning, The count season was delayed this year not only Jean and I piled into the red minivan and headed because of the class I’m teaching, but also so Jean south for Day 1 of the survey. could be home for his daughter Tilly’s birthday— payback for all those years when I insisted on being Janis suggested that it would be good to have at least one at Hastings for Phoebe’s birthday on 8 September genuinely nice photo in this thing and who better to showcase (The only year I missed was 1999—the year when a than our neighbors Ben and Cate, fresh from their East Coast visit? Ben’s a neverending inspiration for how to have fun in big lightening storm started the Kirk Complex fire retirement, while Cate is the quintessential hostess, constantly that burned 86,700 acres nearby.) As a result, it putting Martha Stewart to shame. Here they are at the dinner wasn’t until 17 Sept. that Jean and I flew to SFO for they made for Dale and me during the Hastings acorn survey. the start of the survey. Thanks guys, and please don’t ever leave the upper valley!

For once, everything was on time and worked; Jean and I met around noon at SFO and drove to Jasper Ridge where we met Bill and Mario. Mario, having overindulged in acorn cider, immediately drove back to Hastings, but the rest of us set to work and counted acorns, everything going well until my cutting-edge iButton reader—a Palm Pilot i705— stopped working, apparently in sympathy for protests going on in Hong Kong (where all those Palm Pilots came from, perhaps?). Fortunately, Palm Pilots are inexplicably cheap these days on eBay; I currently have four and may scarf up a few more for next year.

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This year’s statewide circuit was, like every one of recently bought into the burgeoning LA real estate our surveys before it, totally awesome! A small market and, for the nth consecutive year, were sampling: “Ready? OK; go. Stop. Anything? No? generous enough to host us as we breezed by their OK. Next tree is that one. Yes, a douglasii. Go. house, in this case on the way south to Riverside and Stop. Nothing? Alright; got it. The lobata is next. San Diego Counties. Go.” And so on. For days. Sounds amazing, right? Maybe you had to be there. Perhaps it’s just as well you weren’t. And yes, we did just see the Lego Movie. Why do you ask?

One highlight was Liebre Mountain, where after lunch in Gorman we met Tasha Hernandez, the Natural Resource Manager for Los Angeles National Forest, who escorted us up to the black oak site on top of the mountain. As you may recall, this is the site, closed in 2013, that Kyle and I managed to count last year using drones borrowed from nearby It’s always fun staying with H and Louise, who have been staunch friends of the California Acorn Survey since before it Edwards Airforce Base. This year, thanks to a nice was born. Here H dreams about the old days back when he had USFS guy with the unlikely name of Evalds (Evy) hair as well as his future training giant snakes for Hollywood Rimbenieks, I got a real live permit, with the proviso while lounging in their Back 40 in West LA. Their new house, that we be chaperoned by Tasha, whose professional part of their fantasy of it still being the 1930s, is indeed lovely. goal is apparently to count acorns when she grows And yes, next year I promise to have a photo of Louise instead. up. In any case, she was great fun and made a thoroughly enjoyable addition to the day’s A third of the many, many awesome highlights of festivities. the survey (detailed in my forthcoming book entitled “Tree by Tree: Some Instructions on Acorn Counting and Life”) was the addition of a new site at Oak Grove Campground on the way to Cahuila Casino to replace the coast live oaks in the San Jacintos that were badly burned last year and in any case located along an annoyingly busy stretch of Hwy 243 heading down the mountain to Banning.

With the new site, the survey now encompasses 1,106 trees of nine species (eight Quercus and Lithocarpus) divided among 52 populations. Of these, 55 trees have died during the course of the study. Although this includes a good number that were burned or apparently cut (presumably events they can’t prepare for), the hope is that eventually all Yet another selfie with Jean and Tasha as the moon rises over Liebre Mountain on the afternoon of 23 September. (I never our trees will die, thus allowing us to at long last noticed that creepy man-in-the-moon before…) The black oaks declare “Mission Accomplished!” and end the there are some of the most productive anywhere in the state, survey with a modicum of dignity—something that making it a site we work hard to get to every year, despite is typically in short supply during the survey. access having become something of a logistic nightmare. Alternatively, we’re hoping to have enough expired A second highlight was staying with our friends trees to test the “terminal investment” hypothesis Brad and Louise. As you may recall, Brad (or, as I that when trees begin to die they differentially invest prefer to call him, ‘H’), moved from Davis to LA a in current reproduction and have unexpectedly large couple of years ago in order to pursue his goal of acorn crops. I personally put this hypothesis up there becoming a lizard wrangler in Hollywood, a job with the “big acorn crops predict a wet winter” that’s become quite lucretive since the success of the hypothesis (no they do not; as I like to say: if acorns most recent Godzilla movies. In the meantime, he predicted the future, I’d be a rich man today), but has temporarily kept his day job at UCLA where he that, of course, doesn’t mean it’s not worth testing runs the La Kretz Center for Advanced Acorn and writing a paper about (see Can. J. For. Res. 40: Studies. As mentioned earlier, Brad and Louise have 2115-2122 [2010]). 4

The Editor posing next to one of the Joshua trees on our way to awesome as well. It was too cold to contemplate Tehachapi pass on Day 4. Some kind of government survey was climbing Mt. Lassen but we did hike to Bumpass apparently taking place nearby (who are those guys, anyway?) but otherwise it’s a charmingly deserted (not to mention Hell and tentatively deserted) part of California. Anyone out there up for a Joshua put a hike up tree seed survey? Brokeoff Mountain on the agenda for 2015.

Jean after overindulging on the Datura flowers growing alongside South Fork Road in Three Rivers, here with a rare hiker in the background. I tried to talk him out of smoking those things, but admit that Jean was in a distinctly mellower mood the next couple of days. They’re certainly better than the cheap cigars he smoked in the old days. Hightlights of Day 5 included inquiring about the health of Kathy Purcell’s long-time imaginary partner at the San Joaquin Experiment Station and hiking to the Merced Grove of big trees in Yosemite, where we had a nice conversation with Ranger Erica Tucker about acorns. Erica went on to win a year’s subscription to The California Acorn Report by mentioning that she was “especially interested in acorn woodpeckers.” Little did she know she was talking to the current president of the Tompkins County Acorn Woodpecker Appreciation Society!

Lassen Park seems as good an excuse as any for the Strolling Down Memory Lane Department. Here’s Phoebe and Janis on our trip there in 1996. They sure are totally awesomely adorable, aren’t they?

A selfie of Jean taking a selfie in Yosemite Valley on Day 5. We dedicate this photo to Maria, who came all the way from Spain and accompanied us on the survey in 2013 only to have the Valley so smoked up from the Rim Fire that she was unable to see any of the sights, including Half Dome (in the background).

With so many other highlights from which to choose, it’s hard to know which to mention. Dinner on Day 6 with Eric Knapp, an old acorn colleague Bill and Jean toast the end of what best any of us can remember who now works for the USFS, and his wife Stacey is year 21 of the statewide survey. Hopefully someone is keeping helped improve the usual dreary Redding culinary track. Oh, right. That would be me. experience. A side trip to Lassen Park on Day 7 was 5

AND THE VERDICT IS… It may not be a For those of you who have gotten this far thinking particularly good acorn you might learn something about the acorn crop, this year, but the clearly must be your first time reading The buckeyes California Acorn Report. All is not lost, however. sure seemed Here you go: to be doing fine. Here’s In general, it’s a medium-to-poor acorn year. Is this Jean checking out one of the many trees loaded with nuts at Tower House in Shasta County. Too bad nobody is paying any related to the current lack of rainfall in California? attention to them, unless I’ve overlooked someone’s California Perhaps. Then again, at least a couple of species Buckeye Survey. My recommendation—for those of you wasting (valley and blue oaks) usually do better in dry years, your time on those wimpy samaras [that would be you, Mick] is so it’s hardly a given that a dry year will be followed get with the program and start counting buckeye seeds! by a poor acorn crop. If only someone were studying this stuff! Oh wait; that would be me again….

With 52 populations of nine species, don’t expect a simple answer. In general, however, there are a lot more populations falling into the “one of the worst years” category than “one of the better years” category. This is particularly true for the live oaks; it is, for example, either the worst or next-to-worst year ever for coast live oaks at Pozo, Sedgwick, and Switzer’s, for canyon live oaks at Hastings, Switzer’s, and Tower House, and for interior live oaks at San Joaquin Experiment Station. Blue oaks are generally fair to poor. It’s even a fairly poor year for tanoaks, being the next-to-worst year on San Although the acorn crop was generally below average, it wasn’t terrible and probably wasn’t significantly impacted by the Marcos Pass and the worst year so far in Santa Cruz, drought which, as I like to point out, has been going on for a few although in a bad tanoak year the trees still have thousand years anyway. It did, however, apparently drive relatively a lot of acorns (mean of 8.8 per 30-sec several of our trees, whose leaves were entirely or nearly count on San Marcos Pass; 26.1 in Santa Cruz), in entirely brown, to the brink of suicide. Whether they recover or stark contrast to the Quercus species. If you’re a not remains to be seen. Here’s one at Dye Creek that looked very, very sad. valley oak fan, however, the news is not that bad: it’s a reasonably good year for valley oaks at Meanwhile, while Sedgwick, Sierra Foothills, and Dye Creek. It was we were on our also a decent year for Oregon oaks in Trinity County way to Pozo Sept. 21st, Janis was in and for California black oaks on Palomar Mountain. New York City Nonetheless, none of the 52 populations made it into with 400,000 or the “one of the top 5 years” category, whereas 16 so other people (31%) were in the “bottom 5 years” group. All in all, counting acorns not an acorn year to write home about, much less in Central Park. That didn’t take craft an entire newsletter around. all day, so when they were done In total, we counted 9,262 acorns (8.7 per 30-sec they had the count). This does not make it the worst year ever, fabulous idea of which was 2003 (6,572, or 6.5 per count), at least marching down since the total number of trees we count more or less Sixth Ave. to protest plateaued, but it is the worst year overall since 2003, government and is way down from 2012 (18,420 acorns; 17.1 per inaction on tree) and 2013 (19,687 acorns; 18.3 per tree). Is the climate change. world, as we have long suspected, going to hell in an Quick thinking, guys! acorn basket? Probably not; after all, even small acorn baskets are hard to find. There’s also always next year. Stay tuned. We’ll be back. 6

THE TACOPALOOZA/RESTAURANT REVIEW road in Fraser Park. We’re lucky it’s there; patronize it when you can. Rating: 3.5 tacos. As most of you are probably aware, the California Acorn Survey is a thinly-disguised excuse for the Our streak abruptly ended on Day 4 on our way over Editor to spend a couple of weeks in California each Tahachapi Pass. Most of this route goes through fall eating tacos—a nutritional commodity that is in Nowhere, California, and thus we were proud of woefully short supply in upstate New York—as well ourselves for running across the promising-looking as a few other cuisines. In contrast to 2013, however, 20 Mule Café (26979 Twenty Mule Team Road) in this year’s dining was on the hit-and-miss side. We Boron, a town distinguished by several superlatives started with a sure hit on Arrival Day with the including the world’s largest open-pit borax mine, Noodle Bar (1944 Fremont Blvd., Seaside), an one of the largest solar facilities in the U.S., and a establishment favored for its old world ambiance really big yellow truck parked at a corner of town for and fabulous Vietnamese food. With a total of 13 no obvious reason other than to provide shade for bar seats and no tables, we were lucky that all four escaping tourists. All these highlights failed to of us managed to squeeze in. Rating: 4 spring rolls. compensate for the bad Mexican food. The availability of only “ground beef and chicken” tacos probably should have sent us looking elsewhere; what we got were largely inedible Americanized taco-like sandwiches served in hot-dog-shaped paper baskets. Rating: 1 taco.

After 20 Mule Café I became leary of random Mexican restaurants in unlikely localities, which prompted me to skip Serrano’s Mexican Restaurant (40869 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers) later that evening. This turned out to be a good choice; Jean’s taco was, by all reports, terrible. Are there really no good restaurants in Three Rivers? Suggestions are welcome; don’t forget the (purely One last selfie at the Noodle Bar on Arrival Day. Jean and Bill nominal) $99 processing fee (bitcoin now are in the back trying to avoid the creepy guy; meanwhile accepted!). Rating: 0.5 tacos. Dale—who I’d strong-armed into coming to see me since he was going to be off visiting his Aunt Laurie when we passed near Having failed to talk Jean into trying something new Davis later on in the survey—is in front. The food was, as usual, for lunch, we once again went to The Ahwahnee (1 excellent and made a great start for the survey. Ahwahnee Drive, Yosemite Valley) for lunch on

Next was a lovely dinner Chez Ben & Cate. With Day 5. This is the fourth or fifth time we’ve had Dale around for the day, we had a wonderful lunch there, and the best I can say is that it’s evening enjoying the perfect Carmel Valley weather consistent in its mediocrity. Jean got the while catching up on their travels since they visited Southwestern chicken salad and I got the BBQ pork us in Ithaca in late July. Thanks, as always, guys! potato canoe appetizers that were potato skins on par with what one would get at TGIF. That’s not But back to tacos, or at least Mexican fare. Day 2 of actually so bad; in fact, what we eventually realized the survey found us at Liebre Mountain, where we is that lunch there is fine as long as one thinks of it had lunch at El Grullense (49713 Gorman Post Rd., as a TGIF with a fabulous view and incredible Gorman) before meeting Tasha and going up Liebre dining room. The only downside is if you get Mountain. El Grullense is at this point not only very saddled with one of the more pompous waiters, who good but also an old staple. Once again we ordered need to come to grips with the fact that the food just full lunch plates, with me getting the chiles rellenos isn’t that great. Rating: 2 acorns. and Jean the carnitas. As before, the faux Thomas Kincade paintings and disgusting bathrooms added Our next attempt at Mexican food was La Fuente that je ne sais quois of third-world charm that’s hard (9631 E. Stockton Blvd, Elk Grove) south of to beat. The only thing missing this year was Maria Sacramento. With every indication of another singing along with the music, as she did in 2013. El looming disaster, I left Jean there to have dinner Grullense is surely the best Mexican restaurant in the while I got gas and picked up a quick In-N-Out area unless things have changed drastically down the Burger. Jean’s meal, however, apparently wasn’t

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terrible. Apparently the chicken salad he ordered End of an Era: to those of was “fresh and the chicken grilled perfectly—better you familiar with the Ithaca region, it is with a than the Ahwahnee; it just wasn’t ‘Mexican’.” heavy heart that I report Rating: 2 acorns. the closing of the Rongovian Embassy. The After La Fuente things improved, first with Rongovians, known for Johnny’s Boys [sic] Taco Truck (2185 Solano their upbeat music and Ave., Corning), parked across from the Olive Pit, funny military uniforms, are being deported as we and then with Burgers My Way (13600 Mountain speak, although there are House Rd., Hopland), which we went to only rumors that they may because our usual lunch stop, the taco truck at the attempt a comeback, so corner of Hwys 101 and 175, was nowhere to be with luck their absence found. I was again skeptical, especially after will only be temporary. Here Natalia, Janis, and ordering a carne asada taco and having the lady at Steve reminisce about fun the window ask if I meant ground beef, but the tacos times at The Rongo after themselves turned out to be quite good. Rating: 3 our dinner on 17 August awesome tacos (for both). while a few of the remaining Rongovians enjoy their last days in the Last but not least is Zippy’s Korean Barbeque background. (1750 Pleasant St., Redding). I can’t claim that it WRAP-UP AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE was the cheeriest or most charming place we ate at this year, but the meal—prepared by the Korean And that would be it for the 2014 California Acorn couple who also run the Chevron gas station in Report. We gratefully acknowledge support from the which it’s located—was better than a lot of the other National Science Foundation, which continues to be food we’ve had in Redding over the years. Next year the awesomest science foundation ever! Our I’ve definitely got to try the “acorn noodle soup.” editorial offices remain: Rating: 3 Bibimbaps (whatever they are). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 and Hastings Reservation, 38601 E. THE PUBLISH OR PERISH DEPARTMENT Carmel Valley Rd., Carmel Valley, CA 93924 ([email protected]) Contrary to popular opinion, not to mention all and available evidence, we are not totally brain dead. School of Biol. Sciences, Univ. of Nebraska, 348 Manter Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588 ([email protected]) Yet. I think. In any case, the California Acorn Survey team did publish several papers last year, The California Acorn Survey, founded in 1980, is an including one describing the environmental international conspiracy dedicated to the understanding correlates of acorn production from our way-too- of acorn production by oaks in California and the many years counting acorns at Cedar Creek in appreciation of fine taquerias everywhere. Names and years of indentured servitude include Minnesota (Pop. Ecol. 56: 63-71) and a paper investigating the odd habit of serotiny in some Ron Mumme, Meadville, PA (1980-83) California trees (particularly coast live oaks, but Mark Stanback, Davidson, NC (1989-90, 1992) also, oddly enough, an occasional valley oak), by Elizabeth Ross-Hooge, Mt. McKinley, AK (1991) Jay McEntee, Tucson, AZ (2005) which they hold onto their acorns through the winter Xiaoan Zuo & Wenjin Li, Lanzhou, China (2010) and even into the next spring (Madroño 61: 151- Eric Walters, Norfolk, VA (2006-2010) 158). In case that’s not enough to get you to hesitate Maria Dolores Carbonero Muñoz, Pozoblanco, Spain (2013) pulling the plug, we also have two papers in Ecology Ian Pearse, Champaign, IL (2012-2013) Bill Carmen, Mill Valley, CA (1981-88, 90-92, 94-98, 2000-14) (in press, anyway), one by Ian (currently reliving his Jean Knops, Lincoln, NE (1993-2011, 2013-2014) childhood in Illinois) presenting the results of his Walt Koenig, Ithaca, NY/Jamesburg, CA (1980, 1984-2014)

experiment testing pollen limitation, and the other We also wish to thank our dedicated staff:

detailing the hypothesis that within-population Janis Dickinson (Chief Content Officer & Chair of Risk Management) variance in phenology driven by differences in Tamara Kaup (Operations Officer, Nebraska Division) microclimatic variation in temperature correlated Karen Nardi (General Counsel & Director, Black Rock City Division) with overall spring conditions drives variability in Vince Voegeli (Commander-in-chief, Hastings Central) pollination, fertilization success, and ultimately the Mario Pesendorfer (Chief Slave) Kyle Funk (Intern, Special Operations) acorn crop. And yes, I did manage to get that all into Dale Koenig (Chief Topological Knot Specialist) a single sentence. Do I get a prize? Phoebe Koenig (Beekeeping Intern) 8