Shout Out: Rain and Oaks

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Bay Nature Institute currently has an interesting article: "With Rain Comes Life and Death".
The article explains how "a wet year could mean an epidemic spread of sudden oak death (SOD)," and also includes a discussion of treatment and a link to the California Oak Mortality Task Force. I actually know very little about any of this but did want to include the links for those of our readers who do have oaks or are close to oak woodland.

Furthermore, it seems we can all contribute here "You can help stop the spread of sudden oak death by using simple measures like removing dirt from hiking boots, tires, and pets' paws after hiking in an infected area and taking care not to move firewood, leaves, and water from one area into another."

Meanwhile, let's enjoy the rain...

Comments

Country Mouse said…
As a person whose property lines enclose many oaks, I read this with interest. I should read up more to see if oaks in my area are more or less at risk. It's interesting to read the that article that you can now, in effect, "vaccinate" your healthy trees - drilling holes and injecting some material. They don't say what the material is though and I would need to know a lot more. The other thing that caught my eye was "The most obvious symptom of SOD, the sudden browning of the entire tree canopy, is usually one of the last symptoms to occur in an infected tree. Green and apparently healthy trees may be infected without any obvious symptoms." Yikes! Thanks for raising my awareness - I really do need to look into it more.
December 12, 2009 at 1:28 PM
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