Conifers continue to encroach upon the oak woodlands and were previously unchecked by the Forest Protection Act, but with last week’s passage of AB 1958, there is now initiative to restore the oak woodlands by removing conifers that contributed to their decline.
Recent campus findings reveal that a pathogen that kills oak trees by the millions has recently spread further down the coast of California than ever before.
The pathogen, which can cause Sudden Oak Death, has been the focus of research team SOD Blitz — part of the UC Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Laboratory — for a decade. Its research, announced Sunday, included DNA sampling revealing that the disease has reached the San Luis Obispo region for the first time.
http://www.dailycal.org/2016/10/18/campus-researchers-find-sudden-oak-death-spread-southern-ca/
This spring, about 500 volunteers joined in the effort at 23 areas in coastal California to map Sudden Oak Death (SOD). Napa had a good-sized group of “citizen scientists” who joined in to search for the tree-killing disease, surveying over 700 trees in Napa County.
The results were just released by the UC Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Lab, which leads the annual effort.
Head into California’s Sierra foothills and you might think the colorful views are seasonal. But what may look like attractive fall foliage is actually evidence of an ugly reality.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/10/28/california-sudden-oak-death-reaches-catastrophic-levels/
