California’s majestic oak trees have been felled by the hundreds of thousands by a disease first reported in 1995 and dubbed “sudden oak death.” To get a broader perspective on the disease, UC Berkeley scientists have developed a smartphone app for hikers and other nature lovers to report trees they find that have succumbed to sudden oak death. For more ...
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The Midpennisula Regional Open Space District in the Half Moon Bay area is working with scientists, the California Oak Mortality Task Force and several West Coast universities to examine Sudden Oak Death in three separate studies.  For more information on these three studies, visit the Half Moon Bay Review to read a full article.

A pest, which the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) considers to be “the world’s worst pest of palm trees,” has been found in the Laguna Beach area, state officials announced on October 18. They said this is the first-ever detection of the red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) in the United States. The Southeast Asia native insect has spread ...
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–The Associated Press Posted: 10/4/2010 University of California, Berkeley scientists are enlisting the public’s help in tracking a disease that is killing off oak trees. For the past two years, scientists have been counting on residents to collect tree samples and send them to the university’s Forest Pathology and Mycology Laboratory. They have used the information to create a map ...
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Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an exotic beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage but cause little damage. The larvae (the immature stage) feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. Emerald ash borer ...
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