Natural History Wanderings

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the number of  California oak trees that died from  sudden oak death has increased tenfold in the last year. Sudden Oak Death has spread to several new parts of the Bay Area, including Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The Chronicle article states

“Aerial and ground surveys conducted by the U.S. Forest Service documented 375,700 new cases of dead live oak and tan oak trees over 54,400 acres of California where the pathogen is known to exist. That’s compared to 38,000 dead trees covering 8,000 acres a year ago.”

It is believed that the increase is due to two years of high rainfall followed by this past year’s dry weather. Sudden Oak Death Phytophthora ramorum has 107 host plants with California Bay Laurels the most effective spreader of Sudden Oak Disease.

Read more: Explosive growth in sudden oak death – SFGate.