Drought is slowing the spread of sudden oak death

Finally, some good news about the drought. Dry conditions have apparently curbed the spread of sudden oak death in 12 coastal California counties, reported Guy Kovner in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

"If we had one more year of drought, it would really be ideal," said Matteo Garbelotto, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley.

The article said Garbelotto isn't hoping for more drought, but evidence shows that the drought is helping reduce SOD infection rates and in some cases is curing infected trees, "because the pathogen dies."

Each spring, the UC Berkeley SOD lab hosts a "blitz" to gauge the spread of Sudden Oak Death. Volunteers fan out across areas susceptible to SOD and collect leaf samples for analysis.

In the Cloverdale area, where an outbreak was confirmed last year, none of the trees sampled had the disease this year, the article reported.

"I would say it is there, but we just didn't find it," Garbelotto said.

East of Highway 101, the rate dropped from 26 percent infected last year to 23.3 percent in 2014, the story said.

Complete SOD blitz results will be available Sept. 29 on the UC Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Lab website.

Read more