Sudden Oak Death all over the news

A meeting of the California Oak Mortality Task Force in Marin is generating a spike in news coverage of Sudden Oak Death. Today, the main theme is where the disease took hold in California. UC Berkeley researcher Matteo Garbelotto reported on genetic testing of Phytophthora ramorum, the pathogen that is killing California oaks.

According to a story in the Marin Independent Journal, Garbelotto found the pathogen's forebears at a site on Bolinas Ridge within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, five kilometers from the Kentfield site where the disease was first observed in California in 1995. Garbelotto said the owner of that Kentfield home had an interesting story to tell.

"He said when he bought the house it had just been landscaped with a lot a rhododendron plants and that within a few months from the time he purchased it all the rhododendron plants died," Garbelotto was quoted. Rhododendrons are hosts of the disease.

The Santa Cruz location identified in the study is on Bean Creek, just outside a nursery that was shut down due to a Phytophthora ramorum infestation.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Garbeletto was quoted as saying Sudden Oak Death is the "No. 1 most wanted" plant disease.

"It can travel around the world, it can wipe out hundreds of miles of forests," Garbeletto is quoted. "It is having a big impact in California - it is killing our favorite trees and disrupting the ecological network of our forests."

Some of the other media outlets that reported on Garbeletto's finding were:

• KTVU Fox television
• The San Jose Mercury News
• The Santa Cruz Sentinel
• The Palo Alto Weekly

The blog East Bay Express probably had the most quirky headline for the story: "UC Eggheads Find Where Oak Plague Started."

The Oak Mortality Task Force continues today.

A tree suffering from Sudden Oak Death.

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