Chad Clark landscape contractor

09/04/2026

free estimates on all hazard removals

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09/04/2026

now that's its rainy again in fall here are hazard signs to watch out for,

if you see dime sized honey color mushrooms around or inside dripline (root rot )

if the soil on one side of the tree becomes squishy is depressed or raised up (soil or root/ root plate failure)

if you see standing water inside of the dripline
( construction / drainage maybe changed the soil chemistry in that area)

if the main trunk /bole of the tree shifts you should notice it, if its severe damage. wet over waterlogged clay soils and wind create problems

, its good to take pictures of your trees so you have a measure to check against.
trees do not need to grow straight up,
phototropism is the sunlight directing their growth habit

, its perfectly normal for huge oaks and maples to have a sw lean, sometimes its nothing short of a miracle if you look at white oaks the old mature ones you should know what I mean

what ever you feed the lawn is what the tree absorbed /adsorbed and yes w**d and feed will kill true cedars, be cautious of granular herbicides and even round up under the dripline. these rains will not be the cause just the gas the fire needs, trees take along time to die usually 5 years after you think,
valuable specimens are lost to poor landscape management and herbicide applications, do not use moss out, do not use casoron, it only will cost you much more in the long run a healthy lawn does not require expensive chemicals,

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08/29/2026

The crew

07/10/2026

When it going and gets tough, the tough go Advertise, canvassing is my middle name right now.

06/29/2026

this

Encinitas, California just became the first city in San Diego County to pass a native plant ordinance. New developments must use 50% Southern California natives. Near open space, it is 100%. And Calscape is the official plant guide.
On March 25, 2026, the Encinitas City Council voted unanimously to adopt a native plant ordinance. The city is the first in San Diego County, and possibly the first in California, to require native plants by law for new development. The ordinance does not apply to single-family homes or ADUs. It targets design review permits, major use permits, and city projects that include landscaping.
The requirement is 50% Southern California native plants for most qualifying projects. For landscaped areas within 50 feet of conserved habitat, the requirement jumps to 100%. City-owned land also requires 100% native landscaping. The plant list comes from Calscape, the database maintained by the California Native Plant Society. The approved palette includes species from 11 Southern California ecoregions, giving landscape architects flexibility while keeping the plants regionally appropriate.
The ordinance has been in the works for years. The Encinitas Planning Commission began informally requiring 50% native plants on certain projects more than a decade ago. In 2021, Councilmember Joy Lyndes, a landscape architect, pushed to make the practice law. A citizen group called Native Plants for Encinitas formed in 2024 to support the effort. The city allocated $150,000 to hire SWCA Environmental Consultants to draft the technical language.
Encinitas sits on the coast between Carlsbad and Solana Beach. Its native ecosystem is coastal sage scrub, a community of drought-tolerant shrubs and wildflowers that supports a huge diversity of insects, birds, and reptiles. Plants truly native to the area include California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), black sage (Salvia mellifera), Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii), toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia), and coastal dudleya (Dudleya caespitosa). These are not exotic garden specimens. They are the plants that evolved with the local climate, the local soils, and the local pollinators.
The ordinance explicitly bans invasive species defined by the California Invasive Plant Council and the San Diego County Invasive W**d Watch list. Giant reed, fountain grass, pampas grass, and ice plant are all prohibited. These species spread aggressively, increase fire risk, and crowd out the native coastal sage scrub that makes Encinitas ecologically unique.
Don Rideout, a member of the California Native Plant Society's San Diego Chapter, supported the ordinance because it addresses what he calls "the extinction of the little things that run the world, namely insects and other pollinators." He said it is time for constructed landscapes to do more than look pretty. "We need to rewild some of our developed spaces on a scale that is possible within Encinitas."
The city is also planning a native plant demonstration garden in a neighborhood park, plus a rebate program of up to $200 for residents who buy qualifying native plants. The ordinance is not retroactive. It does not force existing homeowners to dig up their lawns. But every new development, every new park, every new city project will now include at least half native plants. Over decades, that changes the look and the biology of the entire city.
Calscape is the official guide. If you are building in Encinitas and your landscape architect does not know what Calscape is, they are about to learn.

06/08/2026

Grafted brach on 100 plus year old silver maple . In most cases these trees fall and split apart and have included bark every where . Because of this location on the corner of a historical building on wou campus and the 150 year old indicators of the other trees in this strip I think they routinely pruned this tree.its in amazing shape. There are many 8 to 12 inch cuts (limb removals)to be found along main scaffold limb structure No verticilium to be seen and a huge grafted limb. I estimate a 120 ft crown 80 ft tall . 120 in dbh. Proving silver maples if given space time water care and no disturbance can be a longterm Tree. Contrary to most I have seen in Southern oregon where they become extremely hazardous

06/04/2026

35% of the World's Wetlands Have Been Lost Since 1970. The Beaver — the Animal That Creates and Maintains Wetland Ecosystems — Was Eliminated From Most of Europe and 90% of North America by the 19th Century. The Ecosystems Left With Them.

Drain the beaver. The wetland goes. The wetland goes — and 35 species go with it.

The North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) and the Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber) are the world's second-largest rodent (after the Capybara) and the only non-human animal that substantially modifies its own habitat to create the environment it needs — a behaviour called ecosystem engineering.

A beaver dam transforms a stream section into a pond. The pond:
— Raises the water table of surrounding land, maintaining moisture in adjacent meadows and forest during dry periods
— Creates standing water habitat for amphibians, fish (beaver ponds are among the most productive freshwater fish nursery habitats in both North America and Europe), birds, and invertebrates
— Traps sediment and nutrients from upstream, reducing downstream silting
— Slows flash flood events by holding water in ponds upstream

The North American Beaver was reduced from an estimated 60–400 million individuals to approximately 100,000 by the 1900s through the fur trade. The Eurasian Beaver: reduced to fewer than 1,200 individuals in isolated fragments by the early 20th century from hunting for fur, castoreum (a gland secretion), and perceived agricultural conflict.

When the beavers went: the wetlands they maintained degraded. Streams returned to faster-flowing, drier channels. The water table dropped. The amphibian populations that depended on beaver ponds collapsed.

Reintroduction results: where beavers have been reintroduced in Britain (River Otter, Devon; River Tay, Scotland) and the US, documented recovery of amphibian populations, fish communities, and water table levels within 5–10 years.

When removing one animal can collapse a wetland ecosystem — and reintroducing that animal can restore it within a decade — does that change how we categorise the beaver: as a rodent, or as infrastructure?

06/02/2026

Emerald ash borer is here in the Pacific Northwest, and is not going to subside. If you have any green ash in your yard, you must either treat it or consider it temporary. As the Emerald ash borer is 100% effective in killing all native Northwest fraxinus, super important. If you have any ash trees in your yard, and you cut them down, do not move them, burn them where they are, do not move any firewood, burn it where you buy it.

05/05/2026

Pro tip : 1 dead rabbit or chicken planted 6 inches below your plant will quadruple its yield. (Roadkill or waste, do not kill a perfectly good rabbit or chicken). This time of year is magical and this rule is good for 2 weeks