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.