Keith Parker
VICTIMS An oak forest in Marin County, Calif., where a plant pathogen has struck.
Top, Garbelotto Lab; bottom, Steve Tjosvold
SYMPTOMS Sudden oak death syndrome, spotted in 22 states, is signaled by sappy bark lesions, top, and by leaf rot.
More about Phytophthora ramorum
--this sounds like it could be worse than the chestnut blight of about sixty years ago or Dutch Elm disease which started forty or so years ago--
If some Indian 'guru' or Haitian voodooist or Native American spiritist wanted to have a ceremony to protect these trees, there would be adulation and mutual worship of Mother Earth. If somebody like Jerry Falwell were to offer to come to the blighted area to pray to God for the trees, the media and Greens would attack him for being a publicity hound and being a simpleton for being superstitious.
I say, if the Oaks are being killed mysteriously, it's time to call in Miss Maple to solve the case...if she has a prayer....
This may be a key.
Isolate the gene/s responsible for the resistance and incorporate them into susceptible species.
In the mean time, get ready to cut and split a great deal of firewood.
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Meanwhile, virtually NOTHING is done about plants imported from overseas.
You will note in the top photo: That is a riparian corridor with surrounding firs on the left and madrone on the right (the left side probably faces north or east). The dead trees are Lithocarpus densiflorus (tanoak). Oaks don't do well down in a wet shady gully like that, particularly shaded for part of the day by taller trees. They are as much victims of fire suppression and succession having allowed massive overstocking. That raised the average humidity, increased the duration of fog, reduced aeration, and increased accumulated and acidic litter (which would kill those trees eventually anyway when Armillaria gets into the cambium breaks caused by girdling roots due to the litter). Higher average humidity and shorter hours of sunlight greatly aid the disease in infecting a tree (tanoak is particularly susceptible because of its thinner bark than most oaks).
These species were selected over the last few thousand years having become accustomed to regular fire. Regular fires would have prevented the conifers from being so dense and shading that zone. Regular fires would have consumed the litter and provided those trees nutrition. There is no way that a stand now in that stocking density could survive a fire.
This disease started in Marin and Santa Cruz Counties, two of the most heavily regulated and overgrown counties in the whole state. I live in Santa Cruz County. Unlike my nieghbors, I have done the hard work of thinning my forests. In the seven years since Phytophthora ramorum was identified, I have lost ONE tree. The trees in that photo are more victims of how that land was managed than they are of the disease (which was likely imported from Europe with rhododendrons, btw).
Phytophthora ramorum produces spores. That means it is spread by birds. There is NO WAY any regulatory body is going to stop it now. All this action accomplishes is to kill a legitimate (although badly run) horticultural industry that we need for re-establishing native plants. The only way they could have prevented the disease was to take action on screening imports (particularly from Mexico), which is the one thing they don't do. So if that doesn't seem likely, ask yourself why.
BTTT
Naah, there's no coincidence to that.
"Just the facts, ma'am..."
Just damn.
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