Ho! Ho! Ho! - Toxic Christmas Trees?

By Nate Seltenrich Courtesy of the Sierra Club

The Fraser fir is the ideal Christmas tree. Fragrant, strong-limbed and long-lasting when cut, it has found its way to the White House's Blue Room more than any other tree over the past 50 years. It is also a vector to the most destructive plant pathogen you've never heard of.

The shapely Fraser fir, a southern Appalachian native now farmed extensively in nurseries, is a common carrier - and victim - of Phytophthora cinnamomi, a deadly water mold wreaking havoc on ecosystems around the world. When infected Frasers are replanted, the disease gets an opportunity to spread to new farms and neighboring plant life.

Read the rest of the article in the Bandera County Courier

Buy Local, Buy Green: Holiday Greenery and Christmas Trees Should Come From Local Sources

Informed purchases and adherence to state and federal regulations can prevent spread of forest pests

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Buying freshly-cut evergreen trees and greenery to decorate during the holiday season is a time-honored and favorite tradition. Unfortunately, harmful non-native insects and diseases can hitchhike on these trees and branches, starting new infestations in communities that were previously pest-free. This has become such a serious problem that federal and state governments now regulate the movement of Christmas trees, holiday wreaths, and related material. Buying locally cut trees from established vendors is better for the economy and the environment.

More than 450 non-native forest insects are now established in the United States. Federal and state regulations require certain conditions be met in order to move Christmas trees and wreaths out of areas quarantined due to pest infestations. These regulations are aimed at stopping the spread of gypsy moth, pine shoot beetle, sudden oak death (a tree disease), and other forest pests, which can be transported on holiday plant material.

Read more here: 

Other items of interest

Check out the December COMTF newsletter for these and other articles:

Patterns of Firewood and Forest Pests Brought to California in 2011, By Matthew Bokach, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region Forest Health Protection


Alder Phytophthora: Native or Exotic? –Surprising New Findings

Canada/United States bilateral talks on P. ramorum policy

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service P. ramorum program manager and trade director for Canada attended a meeting hosted by CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) November 8 – 9, 2011 to discuss certification processes for shipments of P. ramorum host plants from Canada as well as other international commerce concerns.  Regulatory survey data in addition to protocols and harmonization of regulations and host lists were reviewed, and visits were conducted to three propagation nurseries in BC under the Canadian Nursery Certification Institute (CNCI) Program.  To date, P. ramorum detections in BC have only been in retail establishments and not in propagation nurseries which are the major shippers of host plants to the US.

From the December COMTF newsletter

The hidden cost of trade: Invasive species as a trade “externality”

by Faith Campbell

Importation of invasive species is an intrinsic risk of international trade. As trade volumes rise, so do introductions. Preventing introductions is widely recognised as preferable to responding after they occur. Prevention measures require exporters and importers, as well as national governments and trade-promoting and managing entities such as the World Trade Organization, to implement steps aimed at ensuring that the exchange of goods is not accompanied by the dispersal of damaging organisms. 

Read more: http://ictsd.org/i/news/bioresreview/117729/

Nursery Pr positives

The USDA APHIS P. ramorum Program 2011, 3rd Quarter Summary (posted at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/pram/downloads/updates/2011/3rdqtr-Sept2011.pdf) reported 25 nursery-related P. ramorum confirmations from January to September 30, 2011 in the following states:  CA(12), OR (6), WA (5); SC (1); and CT (1 residential).  Fourteen of the nurseries were interstate shippers and nine were retail.  Positive plant detections were from the following plant species:  Camellia (31%); Rhododendron (34%); Pieris (5%); Viburnum (5%); Magnolia (5%); Osmanthus (3%); Gaultheria (3%); Cinnamonum (3%); and 7 other species (11%).

From the COMTF October 2011 newsletter

Oak death creeps north

Despite a multimillion-dollar control program, sudden oak death has spread six miles north of its quarantine zone in Curry County -- closer to Coos County.

Read more: http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_622bb42a-2323-576c-95f9-d5e4d073c24f.html#ixzz1bM1d0wPF

UK government launches tree biosecurity plan

The UK government has said that it will invest £7m to tackle tree diseases, amid fears that millions of trees could be lost unless urgent action is taken.

The Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity action plan was launched as scientists confirmed the arrival of a deadly disease in England among urban trees.

Phytophtora lateralis was recorded in Devon on a Lawson cypress, a popular species in parks and gardens.
Ministers hope the plan will tighten biosecurity measures and protect trees.

Read the entire article on BBC News.

Tree ailment could slam Oregon industries

Researchers guess sudden oak death has cost California landowners several million dollars. The cost to Oregon could be far greater.
While California's infestation is widespread, it mostly has hit semi-urban areas, where it has damaged property values. The disease is only beginning to reach Northern California's timber industry.

Read more: http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_d95df55e-e0fc-11e0-8254-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1YQJR3fHl

This article by the same author has more background information and is worth reading:

Knock on wood
Thanks for sending this, Simon.

Investigating the Spread of Infectious Diseases With NSF, NIH, U.K. Funding

How diseases are transmitted among humans, other animals, the environment is focus.

New research aimed at controlling the transmission of diseases among humans, other animals and the environment is being made possible by grants from a collaboration among U.S. and U.K. funding agencies.

By improving our understanding of the factors affecting disease transmission, the projects will help produce models to predict and control outbreaks. Funding is from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease (EEID) Program. It is also being provided by the U.K. Ecology of Infectious Diseases Initiative of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and U.K. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Among the systems being studied is SOD:

Title: Interacting disturbances: leaf to landscape dynamics of emerging disease, fire and drought in California coastal forests
PI: David Rizzo, University of California - Davis

Summary: This research aims to better understand how the interaction of multiple factors like wildfire, drought, biodiversity and nutrient cycles can interact to regulate disease dynamics. Using long-term studies of sudden oak death, estimated to have killed millions of trees in the western U.S., scientists hope to gain new insights about how the emergence, persistence and spread of a pathogen is controlled by environmental disturbance.

Job posting

This job is available to a qualified person with an interest in SOD:

A plant pathologist research position is available at NORS-DUC. Responsibilities include working collaboratively with NORS-DUC scientists, training undergraduates using NORS-DUC research as a teaching tool, developing and carrying out new projects based on NORS-DUC P. ramorum research priorities, and assisting with NORS-DUC-related grant writing.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position filled.  For more information, contact Sibdas Ghosh by email or at (415) 482-3583.

Current Research at NORS-DUC

The mission of  the National Ornamentals Research Site at Dominican University of California is to identify, prioritize, facilitate and conduct research related to pests and diseases of nursery stock while safeguarding plant health and the environment.

NORS-DUC is the first research site in the United States dedicated to the study of pests and diseases affecting the health of ornamental plants.  The facility is funded by a grant from the 2008 Farm Bill, administered through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Center for Plant Health Science and Technology (CPHST). 

Visit this link to see this years research projects at the National Ornamentals site at Dominican University of California (NORS-DUC).

http://www.dominican.edu/academics/hns/sciencemath/community-partnerships-and-initiatives/norsduc/research-at-nors-duc.html

Research article: Phytophthora ramorum in England and Wales: which environmental variables predict county disease incidence?

Chadfield, V. and Pautasso, M. 2011. Phytophthora ramorum in England and Wales: which environmental variables predict county disease incidence? Forest Pathology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0329.2011.00735.x.

Abstract:  Phytophthora ramorum is the oomycete pathogen responsible for Sudden Oak Death on the West Coast of the USA and Sudden Larch Death in the British Isles. It also causes twig dieback and leaf blight on a series of ornamental hosts (e.g. Rhododendron, Viburnum, Pieris and Camellia) commonly grown in plant nurseries, traded by garden centers and cultivated in public and private gardens. The role of the plant trade in the dispersal of P. ramorum has been well documented, but there is a need for regional analyses of which environmental variables can predict disease expression in the trade and in the wild, so as to be able to better predict the further development of this worldwide plant health issue. In this study, we analyze data on the incidence of P. ramorum (2002–2009, thus before the reports in Japanese larch plantations) in counties in England and Wales as a function of environmental variables such as temperature and rainfall, controlling for confounding factors such as county area, human population and spatial autocorrelation. While P. ramorum county incidence in nurseries and retail centers was positively related to county area and human population density, county incidence in gardens and the wild did not show such correlations, declined significantly towards the East and was positively correlated with disease incidence in the trade. The latter finding, although not conclusively proving causation, suggests a role of the trade in the dispersal of this pathogen across English and Welsh landscapes. Combined together, P. ramorum county incidence in the trade and in the semi-natural environment increased with increasing precipitation and with declining latitude. This study shows the importance of environmental variables in shaping regional plant epidemics, but also yields results that are suggestive of a role of people in spreading plant diseases across entire countries.

P. ramorum in water workshop now on the web

Preventing the spread of Phytophthora ramorum via water was the focus of a 2 ½ day workshop in Puyallup, WA, June 28-30, 2011. Attended by over 50 regulators, researchers, and industry representatives from the western and southeastern US, as well as Washington, DC, the workshop's mission was to coalesce research, management, and regulations for effective, economical, and environmentally acceptable ways of limiting P. ramorum spread via contaminated nursery water runoff. The group began the meeting with a visit to the site of a previously positive Gig Harbor retail nursery (where P. ramorum-infested water had escaped the nursery and infected riparian salal plants) to review treatments and mitigations implemented. Meeting presentations addressed the incidence and distribution of P. ramorum detections in waterways, water baiting techniques, risks and impacts for WA, and treatments to reduce the risk of spreading inoculum in water. Research and education/outreach needs were identified, with group exercises and discussion concentrated on nursery treatments as well as water management, monitoring, and notification of downstream users of contaminated water. More information on the workshop can be found at: http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/ppo/sod/extension/workshops/Pr_water_jun_2011/index.html. The meeting was organized by Gary Chastagner, Washington State University, and Susan Frankel, USDA-Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, and sponsored by Washington State University and the California Oak Mortality Task Force.

Officials shift approach to sudden oak death

Ten years after initiating a campaign to eradicate sudden oak death in Oregon forests, state officials are moving to Plan B. "There is more to treat now than we have resources to treat," administrator of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Plant Division Dan Hilburn said at a recent Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting. "The program has to change. There is no way we can treat this as an eradication program." The change in strategy -- from eradication to containment -- comes at a time when the disease is spreading rapidly and funding for controlling it is shrinking. Capital Press Posted: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 10:39 AM

Colourful allure of sudden oak death

Sudden oak death doesn't sound pretty but snap it with the right camera, from the right angle, and it can look alluring. This forest in Cheshire, UK is one that's already known to suffer from sudden oak death, or Phytopthora ramorum. The firm APEM in Manchester used one of only two Leica RCD30 cameras in the world to photograph it from an aeroplane. With the ability to capture visible light and near-infrared, the 60 megapixel, £35,000 camera being tested as a method of diagnosing diseased trees. See it here: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/09/camera-reveals-tree-disease.html

UC Berkeley Research Links Tree Die-Offs to Climate Change

An interesting idea:

Fungus-related plant diseases are wiping out forests across the world – and new research indicates a similar phenomenon emerged as a result of radical climate change some 250 million years ago. That in turn suggests that scourges such as sudden oak death, Dutch elm disease, and the collapse of eucalyptus stands in Australia could be linked to contemporary climate change.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12YHN)

Agri-fos treatments to prevent SOD spread

Scientists Battle Sudden Oak Death

A swath of uninfected forest on the Peninsula could hold the key to stemming the tree-killing disease

By John Upton

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/12RB9)

On a hot summer day in 2008, a pair of plant disease researchers made an extraordinary discovery as they toured a hillside forest in San Mateo County: a stand of trees that had not been infected by the killer disease known as sudden oak death.

The healthy swath of forest, located on watershed lands owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, is now being used as a laboratory for the largest experiment ever conducted in the wild on a promising preventive treatment for this fast-spreading scourge.

P. ramorum found in Georgia stream

Georgia trees threatened by disease
By April Reese Sorrow
University of Georgia

"In 2005, the Georgia Forestry Commission began monitoring selected Georgia waterways by floating rhododendron leaves in sample bags. They were looking for black spots on the leaves. They found them in 2009.

“We’ve detected the disease in a stream in Forsyth County,” she said. “But we can’t pin down the source. It was repeatedly detected since 2009, and all of the known affected areas have been fumigated. Stream water moves, so it is picking it up all over again from somewhere.”

Pathogens flushed into streams through runoff can lead experts to the source. They’re focusing on streams located in urban areas and around nurseries"

Read the whole article here

USDA funding for P. ramorum related projects

The USDA is allocating $50 million in fiscal year 2011 Farm Bill funding for projects that prevent the introduction or spread of plant pests and diseases that threaten U.S. agriculture and the environment. Of those funds, nearly $2 million will be provided to P. ramorum efforts, including survey and analysis of nurseries in 17 participating states, safeguarding nursery systems, and enhanced mitigation through monitoring the efficacy of treatments in wildland areas. To access the FY 2011 funding plan and list of projects, click here.

From the July COMTF newsletter.

Washington received some of this funding to develop biofiltration systems for reducing inoculum of Phytophthora in nursery water.

New water finds of P. ramorum in Washington

Washington had two new and one repeat P. ramorum-positive waterway detections in June. One of the new positives was detected upstream from a 2010 positive site. The positive stream feeds into the Sammamish River. The other new positive was detected in a watershed sub-basin adjoining the Sammamish River. The repeat detection site has been positive since 2010 and is in a stream that feeds into the Sammamish. While the exact source of the inoculum remains unknown, genetic evidence points toward previously positive nurseries in the associated watershed.

From the July COMTF newsletter

'Super sand' to help clean up dirty drinking water

And Phytophthora-infested water?

Contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material, say researchers.

Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world.

The technology involves coating grains of sand in an oxide of a widely available material called graphite - commonly used as lead in pencils.

Read the rest of the article on BBC News

Updated USDA Regulations Effective June 27 Will Help Stem the Tide of Harmful Non-Native Plants and Pests

Revised rules will help prevent future infestations of non-native invasive insects, diseases, and plants

ARLINGTON, Va., June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finalized changes to regulations governing international trade in plants used in gardening and landscape design, which will go into effect on June 27, 2011. The Nature Conservancy has encouraged the USDA to revise these antiquated regulations to improve the ongoing efforts by the Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to prevent potentially invasive plants and pests from entering the country. As was recently discussed in a controversial article in the June 9th edition of Nature magazine, the threat of invasive species is easily – and wrongly – confused as the incrimination of all non-native species. In fact, the regulations finalized by USDA-APHIS have put in place new systems that allow imported materials to be judged by their invasiveness potential, not simply by their non-native status.

Originally adopted in 1918 to protect U.S. agriculture from threats like the plant disease that caused the Irish Potato famine, plant importation regulations have remained largely unchanged. During the intervening 90 years, U.S. imports of plants have mushroomed to 1.4 billion live plants and cuttings and bulbs each year. Between just 1995 and 2002, the volume of seed imported to the United States doubled.

The newly revised regulations will give APHIS needed flexibility to act quickly when it detects a potentially invasive plant or pest that is poised to enter the country and cause economic or environmental damage. The rule change, which has been in process for more than six years, will create a new category called "Not Authorized for Importation Pending Pest Risk Assessment," or NAPPRA. Under this new regulation, APHIS can quickly restrict the import of plants suspected of being invasive or carrying pests until the risks they may pose are properly understood and protective measures can be put into place.

Read more here.

Controlled burn planned in Gig Harbor area

6/3/11

Controlled burning is scheduled for June 7-8 on Wollochet Drive NW in the vicinity of Fillmore Street near Gig Harbor. The burning is necessary to prevent the spread of the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, commonly known as Sudden Oak Death (SOD).

Sudden Oak Death is a serious plant disease that attacks many types of plants and trees common to the Pacific Northwest. The disease cannot be contracted by humans.

read more here on the Pierce County website

This story is also in

6/8/11 KOMO News

Road crews battling sudden oak death in Gig Harbor

6/3/11 Tacoma News Tribune

Controlled burn planned in Gig Harbor area June 7-8

Slow Sand Filtration Project

Slow Sand Filtration Project for South Carolina P. ramorum-Positive Nursery – The Clemson University Department of Plant Industry strives to protect SC's agricultural resources and natural ecosystems from the introduction and spread of invasive species such as P. ramorum. One nursery in SC has had positive detections of P. ramorum for three consecutive years. While surveys indicate that eradication efforts have eliminated P. ramorum from nursery stock, the pathogen continues to be found in the nursery's water and soil; however, perimeter forest surveys and stream baiting of the river associated with this nursery have all been negative to date.

In an effort to maintain the pathogen-free status of the natural area outside of the nursery, Clemson University researchers and the nursery owner are installing a slow sand filtration system in which all runoff will be directed into a vegetated ditch that will lead to a small retention pond for sediment dispersal. The water from the pond will be pumped into a slow sand filtration system and then drain to another vegetated area for diffusion before entering the river. Each component of the system will be monitored by Clemson University researchers. The nursery and river will continue to be tested for P. ramorum according to USDA CNP protocol and the state compliance agreement. For more information, email Christel Harden.

From the June COMTF Report

P. ramorum in Washington nurseries

A Snohomish County wholesale/production nursery was confirmed P. ramorum positive on May 27^th during an Annual Compliance Inspection. The nursery was previously positive in 2008 and 2010. The Confirmed Nursery Protocol, including delimitation of all stock and collection of trace-forward and trace-back information is underway. Though they are under compliance agreement as an interstate host shipper, the nursery has not made an interstate shipment in the past 12 months. Positive species include Mahonia aquifolium, Gaultheria shallon and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi.

From the June COMTF Report

P. ramorum in Washington waterways

Washington had two repeat P. ramorum-positive waterway detections in May. One of the sites has been positive since 2009 and the other since 2010. Each positive stream feeds into the Sammamish River. Both sites have had positive samples recovered upstream from the confluence of the water course and the Sammamish (baiting by WSDA and WA DNR); the inoculum source for each is unknown.

from the June COMTF report

Oregon nurseries stave off SOD pathogen despite wet weather

Detections down despite cooler, wetter spring weather

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI

Capital Press

Damp and cool conditions are typically conducive to sudden oak death, but Oregon nurseries haven't seen a surge in the fungal-like pathogen despite the dreary weather this spring.

The disease has been detected at three Oregon nurseries so far in 2011, which is the same number as at this point last year, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

During the entire 2010 season, the ODA's testing program found phytophthora ramorum, which causes the disease, at nine nurseries. That's roughly half as many detections as during the peak years of 2004 and 2005.

Read more

WSU monitoring on Clarks Creek

A link to a page on WSU stream monitoring for Phytophthora on Clarks Creek, Puyallup, WA:

http://www.cityofpuyallup.org/services/development-services/puyallups-stormwater-management-program/clarks-creek-initiative/current-restoration-efforts/

Department gives update on Phytophthora ramorum Monitoring

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is continuing to survey forests and control outbreaks of the EU regulated plant disease Phytophthora ramorum, a fungus like organism that can damage and kill infected trees and plants. Under EU requirements, annual forest surveys for Phytophthora ramorum have been ongoing since 2003. Until last year, there had been no findings on tree species and P. ramorum had only been detected in forest areas on wild invasive rhododendron shrubs. Following the initial findings in Japanese larch in Ireland in July 2010, an extensive national aerial and ground survey was conducted. These forest surveys have now confirmed the disease in Japanese larch at eleven forest locations in five counties.

Japanese larch appears to be particularly susceptible to the disease, affecting all age classes and locally causing significant dieback and deaths. Noble fir, beech and Spanish chestnut growing in close proximity to the infected Japanese larch have also been found to be infected at a number of the sites and it is likely that the Japanese larch is the source of the infection. The infected trees are being removed to prevent the disease spreading.

Read more

Killer disease found in two new species of Irish tree

Two thirds of Northern Ireland's forests are under threat from a killer tree disease.

The fungal disease P. ramorum (often called Sudden Oak Death) has already infected tens of thousands of Japanese larch trees.

This has led to the felling of over 200 hectares across nine woodlands.

The disease may have jumped species and has infected a Sitka spruce in the Republic of Ireland and several beech trees in County Down, in the north.

If the disease spreads to other Sitka trees it could be a disaster for the Northern Ireland Forestry Service. The species makes up two thirds of all government-owned forests in Northern Ireland.

The disease was already known to be able to infect beech trees. It has also been confirmed that the infection has been found in European larch in England.

BBC News

Read more here

Sudden Oak Death is not going away

A good description of SOD in California, its hosts, and behavior:

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of visiting the campus at UC Berkeley to attend a training session on Sudden Oak Death (SOD), the disease that has killed many thousands of trees in California and other parts of the world. Losses include many coast live oaks here in Napa County.

To see for yourself, take a short drive up Partrick Road, where the woods are dense. You are likely to spot a number of dead coast live oak trees in this area where SOD was confirmed fairly early in the onset of the epidemic.

The UC Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Lab, which originally identified the disease when it was new to California, continues to refine our understanding of it while it also leads community volunteer efforts to map and mange the disease. The lab sponsors ongoing training for those who are interested in the problem or directly involved in its management.

The March 9 training session, held in the shadow of a large coast live oak by the Tolman Hall portico, was led by lead researcher Matteo Garbelotto, the associate extension specialist and associate adjunct professor who heads the lab research. The lab also sponsors a unique community involvement effort known as “SOD Blitz” days, one of which will be held in Napa on June 4.

Prof. Garbelotto summarized the history of the disease in California from its beginnings to the current state of the research on its biology and management.

Read more here - Trees & People by Bill Pramuk, Napa Valley Register, Saturday, March 26, 2011

Oregon bill targets firewood pests

Officials want to ensure that ruinous insects aren’t inadvertently imported into the state
By David Steves

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SALEM — One way to keep forest-ravaging insects and diseases from hitching a ride into Oregon is to make sure they don’t hide out in firewood brought by out-of-state campers.

That’s the idea behind a proposal that got its first hearing Monday. House Bill 2122 would give the Department of Agriculture authority to regulate out-of-state firewood. Imported wood would have to be treated, most likely with insect- and disease-killing heat. Labels on commercial firewood would have to list the source of the wood and describe its anti-pest treatment if it’s from outside Oregon.

The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, Feb 8, 2011 05:01AM

Estimated losses from Sudden Oak Death in CA, USA

Predicting the economic costs and property value losses attributed to sudden oak death damage in California (2010-2020)

Kovacs et al. 2011. Predicting the economic costs and property value losses attributed to sudden oak death damage in California (2010-2020) Journal of Environmental Management Volume 92, Issue 4, April 2011, Pages 1292-1302. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.12.018

Abstract

Phytophthora ramorum, cause of sudden oak death, is a quarantined, non-native, invasive forest pathogen resulting in substantial mortality in coastal live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and several other related tree species on the Pacific Coast of the United States. We estimate the discounted cost of oak treatment, removal, and replacement on developed land in California communities using simulations of P. ramorum spread and infection risk over the next decade (2010-2020). An estimated 734 thousand oak trees occur on developed land in communities in the analysis area. The simulations predict an expanding sudden oak death (SOD) infestation that will likely encompass most of northwestern California and warrant treatment, removal, and replacement of more than 10 thousand oak trees with discounted cost of $7.5 million. In addition, we estimate the discounted property losses to single family homes of $135 million. Expanding the land base to include developed land outside as well as inside communities doubles the estimates of the number of oak trees killed and the associated costs and losses. The predicted costs and property value losses are substantial, but many of the damages in urban areas (e.g. potential losses from increased fire and safety risks of the dead trees and the loss of ecosystem service values) are not included.

UK House of Lords debate on SOD

Trees: Sudden Oak Death — Question
House of Lords debates, 10 February 2011, 11:21 am

Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat)

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to counter the spread of sudden oak death in trees.

Lord Henley (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Conservative)

My Lords, the Forestry Commission and the Food and Environment Research Agency, working in partnership with other organisations, are delivering a five-year programme in England and Wales against Phytophthora ramorum. The Government take this very seriously. Infected Japanese larch is being cleared from 7,920 acres of woodland in an effort to halt the spread of the disease.

The rest of the debate

First Report of Phytophthora ramorum Infecting California Red Fir in California

G. A. Chastagner and K. L. Riley, Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University Research and Extension Center, Puyallup 98371

September 2010, Volume 94, Number 9
Page 1170
DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-94-9-1170B


Read the article in Plant Disease

First Report of Phytophthora ramorum Infecting Mistletoe in California

Riley, K. L., and Chastagner, G. A. 2011. First report of Phytophthora ramorum infecting mistletoe in California. Online. Plant Health Progress doi:10.1094/PHP-2011-0209-02-BR.

Read the article here.

An Ecological Approach to Sudden Oak Death Prevention

In workshops offered recently by Hidden Villa, ecologist Lee Klinger demonstrated ways to prevent Sudden Oak Death. If you've driven through our hills and noticed whole oaks turned brown and dead, you may be looking at an example of this blight on our oak trees.
Klinger's method mimics the effects of forest fires. His theory is that oaks are fire-adapted and thus need periodic fires to remain healthy.

“Fire replenishes minerals, removes competition and reduces sources of acidity such as mosses and lichens.” With Sudden Oak Death, the plant pathogen, phytophthora ramorum, attacks the trees through the trunks.

To mimic the effects of forest fires, he recommends cutting back underbrush that crowds the tree, removing mosses and lichens from the trunk of the oaks, spraying the tree trunk with lime, adding minerals to the soil and topping with compost and mulch.

Read more in the Los Altos Patch

Red alert in Britain's forests as Black death sweeps in

Just before Christmas, you could stand at the top of Crynant Forest in South Wales and not have a clue that there was a village in the valley below. Today, the view down to the little white houses is uninterrupted. Where in mid-December there were thousands of larch trees, now there is a mass of stumps and branches.

Read the rest of the article in The Telegraph. Ignore the parts about P. ramorum being "a lethal virus from Asia".

Sudden Oak Death Plus Wildfire: A Natural Experiment

From Oregon to Big Sur, potentially millions of trees have been killed by Sudden Oak Death, or SOD. In 2006 and 2007, researchers from UC Davis set up a large-scale study in the coastal forests near Big Sur to examine the spread of the disease and its impact on forest dynamics. The area was one of the first to be affected by SOD. Members of the Rizzo Lab at UC Davis had established 280 plots across the region, carefully counting and measuring each tree and checking for SOD infection. Then, in June 2008, the Basin Complex Fire ripped through Big Sur, burning over 95,000 hectares of forest. By the time the fire was contained, over a month after it began, one third of the team’s plots were crisp and blackened.

Read more: KQED QUEST Community Science Blog

Forget trees, Welsh uplands needed for growing food

BRITAIN’S hill and upland areas could be the answer to tackling the growing threat of food shortages, according to a Mid Wales beef and sheep farmer.

John Pugh is calling on the Assembly Government to reconsider its ambitious tree planting strategy, which aims to create 100,000ha of new woodlands over the next 20 years, mainly on marginal hill land.

And he said any plantations cleared to combat Sudden Oak Death should be returned to farmland rather than replanted.

Read more in the Daily Post

More news articles from the Capital Press

Nurseries get proactive in researching issues August 19, 2010

Researchers have begun taking the offense against the many issues the nursery industry faces.
Marc Teffeau, director of research and regulatory affairs for the American Nursery and Landscape Association, said his association has transformed research to look toward the future, anticipating issues and not always playing a defensive game.

Read More

South Carolina abandons nursery rules April 22, 2010

South Carolina has abandoned regulations that hindered nursery stock shipments from the West Coast, capitulating to demands from California and Oregon nursery groups.

On April 19, South Carolina regulators withdrew regulations aimed at preventing the spread of Phytophthora ramorum, or sudden oak death, into the state, according to court documents.

The regulations, enacted in 2009, imposed additional inspection and notification requirements on nursery shipments from areas afflicted by the fungal pathogen.

Read More

SOD host notification required

The USDA as of March 1 will require nurseries in certain counties of Oregon, Washington and California to provide advance notice to receiving states when shipping some sudden oak death host material.

Read the rest of the article in the Capitol Press

Sudden oak death now threatens more of Britain's trees

After destroying millions of oaks in California, the infection spread to Britain – then suddenly jumped species

In woodlands around the UK, just as here in Afan Valley, south Wales, the race is on to fell thousands of trees in a desperate effort to contain a new disease which poses a threat to British forests on a scale not seen since Dutch elm disease wiped out millions of trees, changing the landscape of the country for ever.

Read the article here: The Guardian

Comprehensive report on SOD

Now available.

Synthesizing more than 10 years of cooperative research on the exotic invasive, quarantine sudden oak death pathogen, the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) recently published "Sudden Oak Death and Phytophthora ramorum: A Summary of the Literature." This 181-page comprehensive report covers a wide range of topics, including a history of sudden oak death, identification and distribution of the disease, epidemiology and modeling, management and control, and economic and environmental impacts.

read the rest of the press release.

Information on how to download or order a free copy of the report, "Sudden Oak Death and Phytophthora ramorum: A Summary of the Literature" can be found at: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr234/.

Smartphone app for reporting SOD

And other invasive species too:

Apps are allowing for coordinated monitoring, efficient data collection, and increased communication and cooperation between scientists and the agriculture industry.

Read more: Western Farm Press