Warning on oak trees!!!

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Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
This is from the Michigan DNR but would apply for all areas.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 2014Contact: Robert Heyd, 906-228-6561, ext. 3023 or Ed Golder, 517-284-5815
DNR advises caution to prevent spread of oak wilt disease For most people, April 15 is the annual tax-filing deadline. For people like Robert Heyd – and other forest health professionals April 15 also marks the beginning of the yearly window when oak wilt can be transmitted from diseased to healthy red oak trees. According to Heyd, forest health management program manager for the Department of Natural Resources' Forest Resources Division, oak wilt is a serious disease of oak trees. It mainly affects red oaks, including northern red oak, black oak and pin oak. Red oaks often die within a few weeks after becoming infected. White oaks are more resistant; therefore, the disease progresses more slowly. "The normal time-tested advice is to prevent oak wilt by not pruning or otherwise 'injuring' oaks from April 15 to July 15," Heyd said. He added that the spread of oak wilt occurs during this time of year, as beetles move spores from fungal fruiting structures on the trees killed last year by oak wilt to wounds on healthy oaks. As warmer weather melts away snow and ice, the beetles that move oak wilt become active. “Unfortunately, many learn not to prune or otherwise wound trees from mid-April to mid-July only after they lose their oaks to oak wilt,” he said. A common question the DNR is hearing this year is, “Can we push the April 15 day back a week or two because of the cold winter?” Heyd says that isn’t an option. “It doesn’t matter how cold it was this winter,” he said. “It only takes a few 50-degree or warmer days for both the beetles and fungus to become active. We have already had warmer weather in many parts of the state.”

Oak wilt has been detected in Alcona, Allegan, Alpena, Antrim, Barry, Benzie, Berrien, Calhoun, Cass, Cheboygan, Clinton, Crawford, Dickinson, Genesee, Gladwin, Grand Traverse, Iron, Kalamazoo, Kalkaska, Kent, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Manistee, Menominee, Midland, Missaukee, Monroe, Montcalm, Montmorency, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oakland, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Ottawa, Roscommon, Saginaw, Shiawassee, St. Joseph, Van Buren, Washtenaw, Wayne and Wexford counties. Although oak wilt hasn't been detected in every Michigan county, Heyd said the need for vigilance is present statewide. Spring is a popular time for people to move firewood to vacation properties and other locations. During this April-to-July period, Heyd said that it's vital not to move wood from oak wilt-killed trees. These trees are often cut into firewood and moved, sometimes many miles from their original locations. Any wounding of oaks in this new location can result in new oak wilt infections as beetles move spores from the diseased firewood to fresh wounds on otherwise healthy trees."With the transport of firewood and other tree-related activities, you have to assume the risk is present, whether you live in metro Detroit or in the Upper Peninsula,” Heyd said. The DNR recommends that anyone who suspects they have oak wilt-tainted firewood should cover it with a plastic tarp all the way to the ground, leaving no openings. This keeps the beetles away and generates heat inside the tarp, helping to destroy the fungus. Once the bark loosens on the firewood, the disease can no longer be spread.New oak wilt sites have been traced to spring and early summer wounding from tree-climbing spikes, rights-of-way pruning, nailing signs on trees and accidental tree-barking (a wound created when bark is removed via impact from equipment, falling trees and other causes). If an oak is wounded during this critical time, the DNR advises residents to cover the wound immediately with either a tree-wound paint or a latex paint to help keep beetles away.Once an oak is infected, the fungus moves to neighboring red oaks through root grafts. Oaks within approximately 100 feet of each other – depending on the size of the trees – have connected or grafted root systems. Left untreated, oak wilt will continue to move from tree to tree, progressively killing more red oak over an increasingly larger area. As more trees die from oak wilt, more spores are produced which contribute to the overland spread of oak wilt.To get more information on the background, symptoms and prevention of oak wilt, visit http://michigansaf.org/ForestInfo/Health/E3169-OakWilt.pdf.

To report a suspected oak wilt site, email [email protected] or call 517-284-5895.
 
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Sometimes I wonder if there's realistically anything we can do. The quarantine seemed to do little, if anything, to stop the emerald ash borer. I have 20 acres of mostly oak, cherry and pople trees. All of the oaks are within 100 feet of LOTS of other oaks. What the DNR is saying is that if any of those oaks is injured, oak wilt can/will spread through my whole forest. We just had a major storm come through. I'm pretty sure at least one tree got a nick in the bark somewhere. If they're saying a nick from tree climbing spikes will do it, I'd say we're pretty much screwed.
 
Yeah, it works like that.
All my beech trees are standing. They have never been cut. They are all monsters. And several of them have signs of beech bark disease. If one gets culled it will take 5-7 other trees down with them.
Meaning there will be alot of damage to surrounding trees.
Clean up your storm damaged areas. Take stuff off the ground, deadfall. Cut from the edge of your lot into a field.
Broken limbs does the same damage.
I decided last spring not to cut trees in the spring anymore. It is a VERY bad time for the spread of so many health problems in trees.
I have an old growth crowded woodlot too.
I read from a DEC site that late summer is now what they consider a great time for culling trees.
That is, if you have a woodlot you own and care for.
 
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We have had oak wilt around here for a while. It can be bad. Single oaks dying in an urban yard is no fun. I know of a big area in my woods that had every pin oak die out in one year, then nothing for 15 years since. I do have a few oaks starting to die on the other side of the property now. One pin oak died last year and some bur oaks are struggling and a few have died. The pin (red) oaks die real fast. The bur oaks struggle and sometimes come out of it. It seems to be related to storm damage or drought years when it gets worse.

I clear out the dead ones in fall and winter and stack away from other oaks. I have not done the black plastic as it is more work than I have wanted to do, but have yet to see signs of spreading the disease. Most of the dead oaks I have cut were dead for a few years anyway. Any wood I sell or give to friends is dry with the bark usually falling off.
 
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"The normal time-tested advice is to prevent oak wilt by not pruning or otherwise 'injuring' oaks from April 15 to July 15,"


I wonder if firing up the chainsaw, felling the tree, bucking it, and splitting it would be considered "otherwise injuring" the oak?:eek::p;lol;lol
 
Sometimes I wonder if there's realistically anything we can do. The quarantine seemed to do little, if anything, to stop the emerald ash borer. I have 20 acres of mostly oak, cherry and pople trees. All of the oaks are within 100 feet of LOTS of other oaks. What the DNR is saying is that if any of those oaks is injured, oak wilt can/will spread through my whole forest. We just had a major storm come through. I'm pretty sure at least one tree got a nick in the bark somewhere. If they're saying a nick from tree climbing spikes will do it, I'd say we're pretty much screwed.

We feel your pain Joe. Around here, we lost all our ash and some pin oaks but have not noticed any more damage to the oak for the last 2 years so we are hopeful. Good luck with yours.
 
Thanks for the head's up. I guess there'll always be a blight of one sort or another, but if one goes after sugar maple, I'll just landscape my yard alternating between igloos and cactus. Ugh.
 
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I think that just may be good advice to follow no matter where you live, just as a precaution...
 
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Good advice to follow.......even if there is no incident of it in your area. Shame, so many things to kill trees. The only good news is that many of the things that will devastate a tree population still leave the wood burnable.
 
I've bought 2 full truckloads of wilt-killed oak from a logger in Menominee county over the last 7 years. The wood was cut on state forest land and was cleared for sale before being delivered. I've got a lot of red oak on my property and around the area, and it would be a tragedy if oak wilt appeared here. The logger told me it has to sit decked up for a year at least before they can sell it. The disease is only about 50 miles away from here, and I am directly downwind from the infected area, so it could get here eventually I guess. I rented a lift unit last fall to trim some large branches off a big red oak in my yard near my patio, so that one definitely has an open source for infection. I'm not really worried about it though, I've pruned many red oaks around my yard in the last 10 years and never had a problem, they all look great. Got to take down about a 30' red oak next week that is getting too crowded with other trees.

Thanks for the info Sav, I never knew that the fungus could be spread above ground by bugs. I thought it was entirely spread underground only by root-to-root contact.

Pat
 
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Good luck Pat.
 
I spoke to a lady at the Baldwin DNR office yesterday. She said they have found Oak Wilt in Lake County this year. I guess it's here.

As a side note, I was at the DNR office buying a firewood permit. I'm surrounded by state land, and there was a section logged off last year a mile from my house - they left a TON of oak cutoffs and scraggly trunks laying around. AFTER I paid my money and got the permit, I learned that timber sales areas are off-limits until so marked on the map. This section is still off limits, despite the fact that the logging has been over for months - so all that oak will lay there in the mud and rot. Nice.
 
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The only way the DNR knows it's doing right by the wildlife is the inconvenience to humans
 
I know they're mostly pretty easy going, I don't want to be that guy, but occasionally somebody gets their panties in a twist.
 
I spoke to a lady at the Baldwin DNR office yesterday. She said they have found Oak Wilt in Lake County this year. I guess it's here.

As a side note, I was at the DNR office buying a firewood permit. I'm surrounded by state land, and there was a section logged off last year a mile from my house - they left a TON of oak cutoffs and scraggly trunks laying around. AFTER I paid my money and got the permit, I learned that timber sales areas are off-limits until so marked on the map. This section is still off limits, despite the fact that the logging has been over for months - so all that oak will lay there in the mud and rot. Nice.

This is really a shame as is the present policy on getting firewood from state land. 30 years ago or thereabouts you could get a permit for 10 cord of wood. No cost. If you needed more, the next permit cost the same amount; zero. I even obtained a permit once for cutting standing trees and it was only about a mile or so from our home. That worked out super good. Then they started charging and that keeps going up. Yet when they sell timber, they practically give it away.
 
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