While I wait for that awesome Fall foliage photo that will lead to the autumn tree hugger post, let's beware of the spreading Sudden Oak Death. The Mercury News is reporting on it here.
A highly contagious disease that has already killed millions of rural California trees is spreading into urban areas in the East Bay and on the Peninsula, according to a major new University of California survey.
The “Sudden Oak Death” pathogen, which emerged in 1995, was found in 13 percent of all samples in central coastal California, up from only 3.7 percent two years ago. That’s more than a three-fold jump — and the highest rate ever recorded.
But in the low-lying and urban eastern Peninsula, infection rates jumped far higher, reaching 36 percent in 2017, up from 2.5 percent in 2015.
The high rate of infections puts these Peninsula communities at risk for the first time: Palomar Park and Emerald Hills in San Mateo County, and Los Altos Hills and Saratoga in Santa Clara County. Other Peninsula communities that were already at high risk — Burlingame Hills, Hillsborough, Woodside and Portola Valley — remain at high risk.
And here is what to look for although the article doesn't say what can be done about it
The most obvious and useful symptom to look for on oaks is a canker on the trunk. Cankers have red-brown to black discoloration. They usually develop three to six feet off the ground, although they can also be at soil level, or as high as 4 meters or greater. They do not extend below the soil line.
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