And 10,000 is about the number of oak seedlings he’s entrusted to the hands of people who pledged to care for the tree that has become his mission and obsession. It began after he retired. For years, he’d been a classroom science teacher in suburban San Diego County, and now, with that chapter behind him, the trees have become his life.
He hopes to meaningfully contribute to the regrowth of burned Altadena. California has Thousand Oaks, Sherman Oaks, Oak Park, Fair Oaks, even Oakland. Consider Encino, Encinitas and Paso Robles.
They paint a picture of a California covered in oaks. But many regions have lost their oak canopy. Some trees succumbed to insects after being weakened by drought.
Some were cut for developments, some were cut down illegally. Some oaks have been cut after fire. Crouch witnessed this loss.
He took to collecting acorns — the seeds of oak trees. He planted them in deep pots. For the first eight years, he was a one-man operation working out of his backyard He began handing off the seedlings to others.
Then many seedlings, to many others. He began opening small nurseries, staffed by volunteers. He named his organization Re-Oak California after a group in the Bay Area with the same name.
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