Preventative treatments for Sudden Oak Death, and the hard working researchers that discovered them, are prominently featured in the latest edition of California Agriculture.
A misty shot of tanoaks, decorated with spring-loaded injectors, filled with Agri-Fos, the phosphonate compound which protects healthy red oaks from the disease, adorns the cover. Researchers from Matteo Garbelotto’s lab are now trying to discover if Agri-Fos can also protect healthy tanoaks. Though much of the attention on Sudden Oak Death has been focused on true oaks killed by Phytopthora ramorum- coast live oak, black oak, interior- live oak and shreve oaks - tanoaks have been severely impacted by the disease, with up to 100% of trees dying in some areas. Researchers speculate that this may be due to tanoak being both a foliar host and a bark canker host.
California’s drier winters have slowed the spread of Sudden Oak Death and perhaps taken it out of the media spotlight, but outreach specialists - Chris Lee in Humbolt, Janice Alexander and Nicole Palkovsky in Marin and lead researcher Matteo Garbelotto in Berkeley - are trying to stay on top of things so that when the rains come, and Phytopthora picks-up, the preventative work will already be in place.
As the CalAg article points out, “One of the biggest challenges in controlling Sudden Oak Death is that prevention is the best treatment, but most efforts begin only after trees are already infected.” There is a great deal of science based outreach taking place so that the disease can be addressed before it’s a full emergency.
Here are just a few examples of trainings open to professionals and the general public:
Fourth Sudden Oak Death Science Symposium The California Oak Mortality Task Force is organizing its' fourth symposium which brings together scientific and management communities from throughout the world working on Phytophthora ramorum and Sudden Oak Death. This forum provides a scientific overview on the state of our knowledge about Sudden Oak Death and P. ramorum in forest, woodland, urban forestry, nursery, and horticultural settings.
Treatment Workshops Matteo Garbelotto offers treatment workshops on the UC Berkeley campus targeting not only tree care professionals and the general public. He makes the information accessible and questions are encouraged. The 2hr sessions, offered monthly during the academic year, cover preventative treatment for the disease. Participants learn which trees to treat, when and how to treat them and are able to see exactly how the treatments are done.
