- Author: Lisa Bell
Garbelotto presented guidelines for California bay tree removal—the first defense in preserving your susceptible oak trees—as well as dosage changes in chemical treatments for oaks.
SODMAP Mobile is an app for tracking SOD. This App calculates the risk to your oaks based on real SOD monitoring data. In Sonoma County, these data are created mainly by the public each spring during the SOD BLITZ, an educational, data-collecting weekend led by the Sonoma County SOD program coordinator, Lisa Bell, and the UC Master Gardeners.
SODMAP Mobile for iPhone
SODMAP Mobile for Android
Photo from SODMAP Mobile shows infected trees, marked with red pins, along a road near Freestone, Sonoma County.
Learn more about Sudden Oak Death in Sonoma County.
- Author: Lisa Bell
A Citizen Science Project
What is the Sudden Oak Death Blitz?
- Spend one hour learning basic disease biology and how to identify it in the field, making you an expert
- Receive all necessary collection materials and instructions on how to sample. Note that sampling has to happen 1-2 days after the training
- Spend 1-4 hours on your own in a location of your choice (your property, business, favorite forest or campground) looking for disease symptoms and collecting symptomatic leaves
- Click here to Register for this free event
You will become officially a citizen scientist and your published disease distribution data will help save our oaks. All at no cost to you. Tree care specialists attending the training can bring in clients' samples.
Meeting Locations
10-11 a.m. Saturday May 30, 2015.
Santa Rosa: Spring Lake Park Environmental Discovery Center. Use park entrance at Violetti Drive, upper parking lot. 393 Violetti Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95409
Graton: Graton Community Club at Main and N Edison in Graton. Map and Directions.
Cloverdale: Cloverdale Historical Society, 215 N Cloverdale Blvd. Map and Directions.
This is a free event. Register here.
Oaks become at risk if the disease is within 200 yards from them!
Find out if SOD is 200 yards away, here's how.
A message from Matteo Garbelotto, SOD Researcher, UC Berkeley: Many of our tree species are susceptible to SOD and several oak species and tanoaks can be killed in large numbers; in the worst sites 70-100% of trees are dead. Since its introduction, the disease has been spreading slowly but steadily and now it is present in 15 contiguous counties from Humboldt to Monterey. In about 15 years of research we have found several effective control measures, but these need to be applied before oaks are infected. Oaks become at risk exclusively if the disease is within 200 yards from them!!
Each year there is a massive surveying effort organized by U.C Berkeley with the help of organizations such as UCCE, the California Native Plant Society and the US Forest Service. This effort represents one of the strongest and now prolonged "citizen science" effort not only in the State, but in the whole country. The volunteer-based surveys have been dubbed SOD BLITZES and we are asking you to join the effort: we need your help to track this tree killer. All data generated by the BLITZES is made public through the web on SODmap Project, the SODmap Mobie app and the media. Learn More
- Author: Matteo M. Garbelotto
One of the greatest assets of our State is no doubt the vastness and richness of our natural environment. Unfortunately, such vastness is constantly being eroded by both natural and human-induced events. Sudden Oak Death aka SOD is one of those environmental threats belonging to the second category, having been introduced in the latter part of last century from an unknown location outside of North America. Many of our tree species are susceptible to SOD and several oak species and tanoaks can be killed in large numbers: in the worst sites 70-100% of trees are dead.
Since its introduction, the disease has been spreading slowly but steadily and now it is present in 15 contiguous counties from Humboldt to Monterey: in about 15 years of research we have found several effective control measures, but these need to be applied before oaks are infected. Oaks become at risk exclusively if the disease is within 200 yards from them!! That is the good news.
For the past 9 years citizens like you have been helping, and this help has resulted in the identification of several new outbreaks and in the eradication of some of these outbreaks. If your county is not extensively colonized by the disease, your effort will allow to exactly pinpoint its current distribution. This means knowing where extra care is warranted to avoid further spreading SOD, and knowing where business and leisure can be enjoyed without risking further disease spread. The volunteer-generated database is the most complete database for a forest disease anywhere in the world, including almost 20.000 points.
If you join a SOD BLITZ you:
- Will spend one hour learning the basic biology of the disease and how to identify it in the field, making you an expert
- Receive all the necessary collection materials and instructions on how to sample. Note that sampling has to happen 1-2 days after the training
- Spend 1-4 hours on your own in a location of your choice (your property, business, favorite forest or campground) looking for disease symptoms and collecting symptomatic leaves
- The activity is enjoyed by adults and children, btw it is a great school project
- You will become officially a citizen scientist and your published disease distribution data will help save our oaks. All at no cost to you
- Tree care specialists attending the training can bring in clients' samples
The SOD Blitz is in the spring because that is the time when SOD symptoms are easiest to spot. You can join and then sample wherever you desire in coastal California.
Register here for this free event
Date of SOD Blitz: May 30th, 10-11 am
- Graton—Graton Community Club, Main and N. Edison, Graton, CA
- Santa Rosa—Spring Lake Park Environment Discovery Center, 393 Violetti Road Park Entrance, Santa Rosa, CA
- Cloverdale—Cloverdale Historical Society, 215 N. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale, CA
Contact: Lisa Bell
Author: Matteo M. Garbelotto
- Author: Lisa Bell
On Saturday morning, June 28, 35 people attended a sudden oak death (SOD) educational talk and local disease update at our UCCE office. More than half of the people who attended were unfamiliar with the disease, letting us know that we continue to find new people with our outreach. In this 2-hour session, Master Gardener specialists described disease history, biology, and treatment.
Attendees left informed about what can be done for diseased trees on their property, or if they have no disease, how to avoid infection. These talks are given by the Master Gardeners at different locations around the county, periodically throughout the year and on request.
Often the first question asked is “What kind of oak is this and is it susceptible to SOD?” See photos below for common oaks of Sonoma County (click on the picture for a larger version).
Visit Sudden Oak Death for more information.
- Author: Lisa Bell
The day included UCCE experts on Forest Ecology, SOD and wildfire behavior, the status of SOD in Sonoma County, local landowner experiences with SOD management, and a private researcher who just completed a manual on managing sudden oak death. A member of the Kashia Band of the Pomo Indians described their forest management approach to SOD. Attendees learned about the complexity of redwood forest ecology; how forest fire is enhanced by standing-dead trees killed by SOD; how to manage California bay laurel trees and poison oak to lower the chance of disease spread; and that tanoak tree injection with control materials does not work. It was a practical seminar that stimulated discussion and updated land managers on what works and what doesn't work in SOD management.
Contact: Lisa Bell, Sonoma County SOD Program Coordinator, lisa.bell@sonoma-county.org