DNR
Help prevent the spread of oak wilt: Avoid pruning or wounding oak trees between April 15 and July 15
Help prevent the spread of oak wilt: Avoid pruning or wounding oak trees between April 15 and July 15
Contact: James Wieferich, 517-284-5866 Agency: Natural Resources
April 14, 2021
Oak trees have a reputation for being mighty, but these majestic trees need our help in spring and early summer to prevent the spread of a microscopic killer. From April 15 to July 15, oak trees are at high risk for oak wilt, a serious fungal disease that can weaken white oaks and kill red oak trees within weeks of infection. During this time of year, flying beetles can carry oak wilt fungus spores from tree to tree and the fungus can infect trees through wounds left by pruning or storm damage.
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To hold the line, people like Kara Ermatinger and Grant Trukowski spend their winter walking. And walking. Up and down dunes, dodging melting snow and ice puddles.
“This week has been pretty nice though with the warming up, says Trukowksi. We’re not really trudging through snow, but still kind of battling the elements and the wind especially the last few days.”
Trukowski and Ermatinger work for the Mason-Lake Conservation District. Their full-time job from December through March is looking for the hemlock woolly adelgid or HWA.
The invasive bug from Japan can kill a tree within four years. It does this by sucking nutrients from the host tree.
MSU researcher working to address emerald ash borer
Emerald Ash Borer
Researchers didn’t see emerald ash borer (EAB) coming when it first appeared in Michigan in 2002, and the spread has been devastating killing tens of millions of ash trees in Michigan. The troublesome beetle most likely entered the U.S. through wood crating and/or pallets used to ship cargo from Asia and has led to a full-blown plant health emergency.
Deborah McCullough, MSU forest entomology professor, has worked with other researchers, technicians and students on EAB population dynamics, spread, impacts and control.
McCullough
“We collected tree rings across a 5,800 square mile area in southeast Michigan and found that emerald ash borer had arrived in the Detroit metro area near Westland and Garden City by at least the early 1990s, but it wasn’t discovered until 2002,” she said. “EAB is now in 35 states, five Canadian provinces and is considered the most destructive and costly forest insect t