AF&RC News
Loggers World-October 2002
Forest researchers have discovered that the same disease that is responsible for the so-called Sudden Oak Death in the Bay Area has infected a small stand of Douglas firs in Northern California. Scientists have so far determined that the disease affects 17 species including Redwood, huckleberries, and certain rhododendrons. Sudden Oak Death has laid waste to tens of thousands of black oak, coast live oak and tan oak trees from Monterey to the Oregon border since it was detected in 1995. The disease has been discovered in Oregon, but thus far has not been detected in Washington. It is caused by a so-called water mold nameded Phytophthora ramorum and is spread by spores from an infected host plant.
The concern about redwood trees began in earnest a year ago, when dead sprouts were seen coming out of redwood tree trunks at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in Monterey County. At every site that was sampled, researchers found evidence of the disease in redwoods. Recently, infected Douglas fir saplings were found at only one site - in Sonoma County - but they seemed to show a stronger reaction to infection. In an attempt to slow the spread of the disease, plant material has been quarantined in 12 counties in California and a small area in southwest Oregon.
California Governor Gray Davis has asked President Bush for $10 million to combat the disease. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has also sent a letter to Bush, urging him to release $5 million in emergency funding that has been held up in budgetary proceedings. As of now, only $2 million is budgeted this fiscal year to fight the disease.
All of the infections were in saplings and sprouts and there is no evidence yet that the disease can actually kill grown trees. Infected bay laurel trees surrounded the infected Douglas firs, and it is speculated that the reaction there may be unique to that site. No large Douglas fir or redwoods have died, and based on what researchers know now, they believe none will die from this pathogen.