Sudden Oak Death Impacting Other Species

Environmental News Service ^ | 04/08/2003

[cogitator]

More on Sudden Oak Death:

California Oak Mortality Task Force

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[sasquatch]

An International Symposium on SOD will be held online from April 21 to May 4 by the American Phytopathological Society.

So after 7 years, it's time to study the problem. Since these 'scientists' are now living off the problem, what's their incentive for a solution? Last year (several years after the infestation spread), the County Ag commissioner established a quarantine on the transportation of firewood that is not enforced and thus ignored. It's too late, the stuff is everywhere. And it's probably spread more by birds and squirrels than man. Mismanagement of the woods continues.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

bump

[Bluntpoint]

My oak table seems under the weather.

[RogueIsland]

Al Gore's worst nightmare.

[PA Engineer]

Al Gore invented the fungus. ;-)

[farmfriend]

ping

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[rusty millet]

The symposium is a method for communicating results and getting new ideas, not to begin studying the problem.
The incentive for scientists to find a solution is different than the incentive for local and state political figures. Much of the incentive is scientific curiosity, and, of course, professional stature.
There are several inaccuracies in the article, but the fungus is actually spread by wind-blown spores, and the issue is only peripherally related to mismanagement of woods. All plant pathologists I know really are interested in problem solving. Our reputations as competent researchers depend on it.

[steve-b]

Al Gore is placing himself under quarantine.

[bigfootbob]

Human intervention will not stop this plague. It's reminiscent of the Dutch Elm disease that roared through the Midwest a decade or so ago. Plant physiology will either mutate and build a tolerance or die. I've heard it's beginning to infect the Redwoods also. Damn shame on one hand, on the other, I would like a new old growth redwood deck.;)

[B4Ranch]

Our reputations as competent researchers depend on it.

I don't know you so this remark is not aimed at you.

Competence is not required to gain access to State or Federal research contracts. If you are willing to preach the Agency line you will be at the top of the list.

[Search4Truth]

No doubt the fault of the Bush administration.

[farmfriend]

I would like a new old growth redwood deck.;)

Sarcasm aside, Trex is your better option. It cost a bit more in the short run but you will save in the long run. I'll send you a picture of a ramp made with trex.

[bigfootbob]

"Trex is your better option"

I was wondering about that stuff. I've thought about using it, but I don't know anyone who's used it in this area. With all the rain we get I'm concerned about it getting slick as snot during our mild wet winters.

[farmfriend]

Not a chance on the slick thingy. Trex has a soft fuzzy feel and doesn't rot or get hot etc. The screws bury themselves with no counter sinking etc. You do have to use a stronger support system. 12" on center as opposed to 16". You can use pressure treated pine rather than redwood. Home Depot has their version of Trex and it is just as good if not better. I'll send pictures of the Grange porch done in trex. We still need to put on pickets and stuff but looks great.

[Carry_Okie]

Sudden Oak Death (SOD) was first reported in 1995 in Marin County, California in oaks and tanoaks, but now scientists think that nearly all the main tree species in California's forests, as well as forest shrubbery and undergrowth, may act as hosts for the disease.

Duh. I knew that three years ago just by observation (this disease started early in Santa Cruz (there's a clue). There were totally uneducated people around here who knew a fair amount about how this disease worked when the "experts" up at Berkeley thought the problem was amphora and oak bark beetles (I'm forgetting the name of the the original lead academic cheese, I've got it somewhere).

Thanks for the link, btw. You ought to go look at the task force org chart to see all the agencies and activists feeding off this mess.

I've lost two small trees to phytophthora so far (which is nothing on my place). One (about three years ago) I caught early and bagged and burned it to control the beetles, the other (two years ago on a remote part of the property) I left standing because it was too late and I hadn't received any information out of these scientific geniuses on how to clean my equipment after cutting it (as if there won't be dust, spores, and beetles flying away all over the place). In the latter instance, I thinned the understory pretty substantially in that area to see what would happen (so far, I haven't lost another tree). There are a number of trees across the road about 200 yards away from it that have died, but my place is otherwise relatively unaffected. Guess why?

The way this disease has been managed really pi$$es me off. It was so very preventable, and represents a magnificent example of the structural failure of government risk-management systems (although they would never see it that way, much less admit it in public). The principal cause of the introduction of this pathogen is that we subsidize plant importers by not making them either pay for the risk of infestation (an astronomical cost) or else institute a way to assure that no pathogens are in the product (the story of how this disease spread out of nurseries has been totally spiked). They had the option of importing sterile cultures for micropropagation and didn't do it because they didn't have to. Somebody "saved money." Worse, the moment this came to the fore, the activist creeps and their thug buddies in government immediately started trotting out the predictable junk science to use it as a source of money and power toward their own ends. They claimed it was moved on boots, logging equipment, and car tires because they wanted to close the parks and stop all timber operations. Never mind that birds fly all over the state, or that the places that are the worst hit are overgrown riparian corridors.

The story was EXACTLY the same with botryospheria infestations in madrone that started twenty years ago after they'd already had the example of Dutch Elm Disease. Nobody did anything to fix the system that allowed it to happen, as if they couldn't read the handwriting on the wall. Well, there's a reason they don't fix it, and it is financial. Importers don't want to be accountable for their products or suffer having them inspected, much less pay for it. Why? Because they can use political power to get the public to deal with the risk.

It's the risk-management system that has to change. Yeah, I know... that book again.

[Carry_Okie]

Human intervention will not stop this plague.

I agree completely. Once the pathogen escapes, it's too late to do anything about it.

I've heard it's beginning to infect the Redwoods also.

Not from what I have seen. Redwoods may host the disease, but I haven't noticed any mortality. Zero. Bays are minorly affected (leaf spotting) and if are already stressed might die. Toyon bushes appear to be the most affected understory speices.

Too bad it doesn't kill broom.

[Carry_Okie]

The incentive for scientists to find a solution is different than the incentive for local and state political figures. Much of the incentive is scientific curiosity, and, of course, professional stature.

You forgot grant money, or even an endowed chair.

All plant pathologists I know really are interested in problem solving.

I would alter the statement. They are interested in being the one who solves the problem. Unfortunately, the real problem of how these things are allowed to happen is systemic and it starts in government.