Local oaks are dying

[Clovis]

Oaks are dying at record rates across Chesapeake region

It’s not your imagination. Those beautiful mature oaks are dying, along the road, in forests, perhaps even in your yard — at an accelerating rate.

www.stardem.com

This story caught my eye and I thought others here would be interested as well as there is talk of reduced acorn amounts and affecting deer hunting. I've noticed some of what they are talking about with the oaks on the place here (leaves looking funny/dead).

As to the causes I kind of lean to new diseases/insects being brought in from all the imported stuff we consume.

 

[Bikebreath]

They had to mention climate change 3 times to satisfy themselves. It's not pretty, for sure. You don't know how much you like tress until you spend time in the desert.

I've known about the danger the American Beech is facing. This article from 4 years ago says scientists are as unsure as they are with the oaks on the cause. Although not as essential to the feeding of forest animals as acorns, it would still be a great lose to out forests.

Science | AAAS

www.science.org

 

[RRomig]

My neighbor and I were talking about this recently. We are surrounded by forest and can see that the thinning over the last five years is very noticeable.

 

[rondon600]

2 line beetle is one of the big problems. I have a forest area in Severna park I walk and Yiu can see sawdust coming out of the trees. Once infected they last 3-4 seasons at most. We’ve lost so many here I’ll have a winter water view soon. I contacted forestry amd they were coming out and then crickets. They sounded interested as this was a forest area rather than a residential/yard.

 

[Afrikeber]

My favorite tree is the American Chestnut and she was substantially taken down by the blight.

I hope the oaks fare better.

My second favorite tree is the sycamore and they seem to be everywhere here and doing well.

 

[fogman]

I hiked the Appalachian Trail from Harper's Ferry down to Front Royal over the summer. Large stands of dead oak trees. Reminded me of the Gypsy Moth blight but worse. Talked to one of the volunteers with PATC and he said the theory is a fungus is killing the oaks.

 

[Clovis]

They had to mention climate change 3 times to satisfy themselves. It's not pretty, for sure. You don't know how much you like tress until you spend time in the desert.

I've known about the danger the American Beech is facing. This article from 4 years ago says scientists are as unsure as they are with the oaks on the cause. Although not as essential to the feeding of forest animals as acorns, it would still be a great lose to out forests.

Science | AAAS

www.science.org

I noticed the climate crap, but it is the cause of everything so...

Along with the oak, the place has lost an enormous amount of Ash dead and falling down throughout the stream bottoms.

 

[AssMan]

I blame china and all of the pests they knowingly and unknowingly unleash on the world for most of it.

 

[SKIP]

I have lost 2 mature oak trees in the last 2 years.
$5k to remove both but I have enough fire wood for the next three years.

 

[outrider58]

Oaks are very susceptible to fungi and we've been having very wet springs in the last few years. I'm not saying this is the overall cause, but doesn't help with already weakened trees.

 

[Silverlax]

We are loosing oaks like crazy in my woods. I thought it was from ants because I find them in every one I cut when they are dead.

The beech trees are getting affected by bugs that produce some sort of white fuzz in large patches on beech leaves/branches. The dead leaves on the ground below these patches look like someone has been pouring acid in them. During the winter it turns black on the trees and kills anything it’s touching.

 

[silver78]

As someone who worked for a tree care company in the 80s I have noticed oak decline for decades. Even before this so called new oak death problem. Part of the problem is caused by simple economics. Other species of trees like the red maple are easier to transplant and so landscapers kind of pushed them on the tree buying public. As a casual tree shopper my guess is that Home Depot sells 10 maples for every oak it sells. My numbers may be off but I think I can make my point here on the money issue. Suppose the one year transplant fail rate for red maples is 2% and the fail rate for red oaks is 4%. Let's also assume that if your tree dies within one year of planting you expect the landscaper to replace it for free. It did not take landscapers (or other tree sellers like HD) very long to realize that selling/planting maples is more profitable than selling/planting oaks. Add to it the number of folks who value the nicer fall colors of a maple vs oak and those pesky acorns from oaks in the fall and maples really win out. Now as a tree nut (pun intended) I have planted a number of oak trees at my house, but I am in the minority compared to most of the tree buying public. So if you want to be part of the solution buy and plant an oak tree next spring.

 

[Bikebreath]

We are loosing oaks like crazy in my woods. I thought it was from ants because I find them in every one I cut when they are dead.

The beech trees are getting affected by bugs that produce some sort of white fuzz in large patches on beech leaves/branches. The dead leaves on the ground below these patches look like someone has been pouring acid in them. During the winter it turns black on the trees and kills anything it’s touching.

I was told it was this iridescent green beetle.

(not my picture)

 

[AssMan]

I was told it was this iridescent green beetle.

(not my picture)

Emerald Ash Borer?

 

[lazarus]

I noticed the climate crap, but it is the cause of everything so...

Along with the oak, the place has lost an enormous amount of Ash dead and falling down throughout the stream bottoms.

Yeah I only have a few ash left. This winter took down several of the ones that were just about completely dead. I have a HUGE ash that is going to be a PITA to cut up later. A solid 4 feet at the base. Cutting it with my 20" bar Farm boss is going to be a nightmare when it finally comes down. It has been shedding giant branches the last year.

The tulip poplars, beech, black cherry's and maples seem to be the only trees on my 4 1/2 acres and the woods surrounding that appear to be doing really well. The red and saw tooth oaks seem to be doing better than the white oaks. I have several of each variety doing fine, but the oaks that are doing poorly are all white oak. Including an ancient white oak that must be 6 feet at the base that I am pretty sure is going to be completely dead in another season or two.

The black locust are also doing fairly well, but I only have some of those out in my front woods. Oh, the couple of tree of heaven trees I have are doing amazing. And doing an amazing job of attracting lantern flies this year. It went from a couple dozen I found last year, to the trees had thousands on them I was killing. I need to read up more if I should take them down/kill them or not. Or if it is worse for everything else once the lantern flies don't have an attractive "host" and they'll go on to murder my fruit trees, grapes, maples, etc.

 

[steveh326]

my neighbor lost all his oak trees. I am losing mine. I have 2 standing dead trees next to me house now I need to have taken down. a few more down in my woods. I had an arborist come out to take a look. he says cause is Ambrosia beetle. once infected there is no cure. can only spray and control them from infesting.

 

[boothdoc]

I have noticed the same thing and I have started to plant more oaks all the time.

 

[K31]

When I moved into my current home I had like 12 mature oaks in the backyard. I've had to have about half of them removed including two this year. The disease that kills them seems to get under the bark and if falls away. The tree becomes leafless before/during that. I've notice the same thing in the local park. The guy who took down the last couple of trees said "black beetles" but I don't know. I haven't seen any major insect infestations except occasionally these bark lice?

 

[GutPile]

My favorite tree is the American Chestnut and she was substantially taken down by the blight.

I hope the oaks fare better.

My second favorite tree is the sycamore and they seem to be everywhere here and doing well.

They are waiting on Biden's admin to get off their ass and approve the blight resistant variant to begin seeding and eventual reforestation. Probably wants to figure out what his cut is before allowing it to move foward. I've been planting the chinese hybrids to exerpeiment on how they attract deer. It's a long game though.

https://www.acf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/web3-faqs.pdf

Why is ESF submitting the “Petition for Determination of Non-regulated Status: State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Blight-Resistant Darling 58 American Chestnut (Docket Number: APHIS-2020-0030)” to USDA-APHIS and why do we need “nonregulated” status?
Under current rules, regulated transgenic plants can only be grown in confined permitted pots. We are asking USDA-APHIS to approve the nonregulated status of the Darling 58 transgenic tree to allow the tree to be planted in unrestricted areas and released to the public for general use in restoration programs. It is a crucial step to restore the forests, save the American chestnut from extinction and advance the science for saving tree species. An executive summary of the petition can be found here.

 

[GutPile]

I've spent disturbing money taking dying oaks down that are within striking range of my house. All since ~2012 when we had our last major drought. From what I've heard a lot of the death is related to trees that were weakened from that and became succesptible to insects and oak wilt.