Posted on 04/09/2003 8:22:56 AM PDT by cogitator
Sudden Oak Death Impacting Other Species
Sudden Oak Death Impacting Other Species
BERKELEY, California, April 8, 2003 (ENS) - Researchers believe a highly contagious disease that has killed tens of thousands of native California oaks could be spread by a wide range of other species.
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.
"SOD's reproductive strategy may make it able to persist indefinitely in infested forests and may affect the success of future regeneration and restoration efforts," according to Matteo Garbelotto, an extension forest pathologist and adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley who has been researching the disease.
"What we hypothesized and what we are now confirming is that SOD is not spreading via the oaks, but is instead using a huge range of native plants for reproduction," he explained.
The disease is caused by a funguslike brown larvae related to the organism that caused the nineteenth century Irish potato famine. Scientists are not certain how the disease got to California, but some suspect through imported nursery plants.
It appears to use the leaves, branches and stems of its hosts to reproduce, leaving behind lesions and leaf discoloration. It does not kill the host plant outright, according to scientists, but repeated SOD infections are likely to weaken the plant over time, negatively impacting its growth and making it susceptible to other diseases and insects.
Scientists knew the disease was spread by plants other than oaks, including plants from the rhododendron family, but evidence that it could have such a broader range of potential hosts brings good and bad news to those trying to combat the disease.
It increases the potential impact on California's forests and ecosystems, but also gives scientists greater understanding of the disease.
"The more we know about how SOD is spreading, the greater the chances for finding a way to control it," Garbelotto said.
An International Symposium on SOD will be held online from April 21 to May 4 by the American Phytopathological Society.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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