Oak wilt disese spreads throughout southeast Wisconsin
State officials are warning tree lovers to protect their oaks against a devastating disease that appears to be spreading.
Oak wilt disease, which can bring down a healthy oak tree in just a few weeks, is turning up in a growing number of backyards.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” said David Farina, a tree care consultant hired to monitor the disease in Oconomowoc Lake.
Transmitted by insects or from one tree’s roots to another’s, oak wilt comes from the same fungus family as Dutch elm disease, and has been long present in Wisconsin. It is most common in red oak trees, although other types of oak are not immune.
Homeowners can help prevent oak wilt disease by not pruning their oak trees during the growing season, because that tends to attract sap-hungry beetles carrying the fungus.
Once a tree is infected, it typically sheds its leaves in midsummer and then dies, often within just a few weeks.
State Department of Natural Resources officials said oak wilt has existed for many years and has been detected in every southeastern Wisconsin county to one extent or another.
Concerned that the problem was growing, DNR officials last month issued a plea for homeowners to avoid pruning their oak trees between April and September. Even the slightest damage to a tree can attract the fungus-carrying beetles.
Kyoko Scanlon, a DNR forest pathologist, said the state also is working to develop a database to improve its tracking of the disease.
“We know it’s pretty widespread,” Scanlon said. “We don’t know why it’s becoming more prevalent.”
May 11, 2009 at 12:13 p.m.
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Rooster is right -- this is very like the swine flu for trees. Just as with human and animal diseases, the era of modern transportation and shipping means that a disease can easily spread to an area where there is no resistance. Dutch elm (which is probably Asian in origin) has already killed 95% of elms in North America (70 million trees). The trees, primarily elms, that were planted along Janesville streets in the 19th century gave us the nickname "Bower City". If you recall as I do the stately cathedral effect of a street lined with elms, you know how devastating this is.
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Another tree species largely killed off by disease in the 20th century is the chestnut.
http://www.forestpathology.org/dis_chest...
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Fortunately oak wilt is more manageable than the new disease "sudden oak death".
http://www.forestpathology.org/dis_sod.h...
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It's hard to imagine the oak or the ash going the way of the elm and chestnut. But that may well happen.
May 11, 2009 at 11:18 a.m.
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THANK you Hornet!! I would hate to see anything happen to our oak~~it's one of the reasons we bought this old 200 year house!! :o)
May 11, 2009 at 10:57 a.m.
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"Homeowners can help prevent oak wilt disease by **not** pruning their oak trees during the growing season, because that tends to attract sap-hungry beetles carrying the fungus."
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This means there is a window for pruning -
DO NOT PRUNE between April 15 and October 1. Wound paint is not normally used anymore, but can be used on oaks if there is a wound - and should be applied immediately.
See the UW Extension bulletin on oak wilt: http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/G3590....
May 11, 2009 at 8:21 a.m.
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Whoops!! Not quite sure how I managed to post that twice! !LOL I suggested removal for one of them!
May 11, 2009 at 8:19 a.m.
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I agree rooster!! Our oak in the backyard is at least 150-200 years old. If I hadn't happened to read this~~I would have never known!
May 11, 2009 at 8:19 a.m.
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I agree rooster!! Our oak in the backyard is at least 150-200 years old. If I hadn't happened to read this~~I would have never known!
May 11, 2009 at 8:16 a.m.
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I need to convince my neighbor to prune his oak trees out front. I don't like the way they drop their leaves all winter long. I'd even offer to haul them away. All the way to my wood stove.
May 11, 2009 at 7:26 a.m.
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this info should be disseminated through all the medias as widely as possible perhaps including mail. dutch elm ended in the elimination of whole forests of the trees and streets lined with elm disease. these diseases are the swine flu of diseases.
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