Surge in Bay Area oak tree deaths worries scientists

http://www.insidebayarea.com/bay-area-news/ci_21749662/surge-bay-area-oak-tree-deaths-worries-scientists


A recently completed survey shows 376,000 dead oak trees across the coastal regions impacted by Sudden Oak Death, a pathogen that develops on host plants ranging from the bay laurel to ornamental rhododendrons. 

Last year's survey, like this one aided by volunteers led by scientists at UC Berkeley and the California Oak Mortality Task Force, found 38,000 dead trees across a much smaller area. 


That came in 2007 after extremely wet springs the previous two years left 830,000 trees dead. The fewest number of dead trees were counted in 2010, when 2,700 trees died after a dry spring in 2009. 

The disease that quickly kills trees that can take hundreds of years to grow is present in 14 coastal California counties from Monterey to Humboldt, and just across the border in coastal Oregon.