Help Needed – Sudden Oak Death Survey Has New Urgency in East Bay

The annual spring "blitz" by volunteers to record cases of sudden oak death has taken on new urgency on this side of the East Bay hills this year.

Matteo Garbelotto, whose UC Berkeley lab conducts the campaign to track and restrain the spread of the pathogen that has killed millions of oaks and tanoaks in California, said that last spring's survey showed a rapid spread of the disease over the top of the East Bay hills into the region between the hills and the Bay, especially in North Berkeley and Montclair, he told Patch.

"What we saw last year was really an explosion," he said in reference to the disease's advance into the inner East Bay.

There's still no cure for sudden oak death, though there are measures that can retard its advance, including removal of pathogen carriers like bay trees near infected trees and some chemical treatments, said Garbelotto, an adjunct professor and Cooperative Extension specialist.

Garbelotto's team is now seeking volunteers to help conduct the annual spring survey, called the "SOD Blitz," to find diseased trees. The results are compiled into a report, along with maps, each fall. The reports are available on the lab's webpage.

Training sessions for volunteers are being held in various Bay Area locations, including one in Berkeley at 1 p.m. on April 27 at 159 Mulford Hall on the Berkeley campus. Participants are asked to register in advance at Eventzilla. 

The spread of sudden oak death is not uniform, Garbelotto said.

"Since we've started studying it, it gets worse and worse every year, but the rate of advance of the disease changes," he said. A major variable in the past, before it moved into the moister region on this side of the East Bay hills, was the amount of rainfall, with a faster spread in wetter years, he said.

Asked about some people's concern on whether they can grow rhododendrons and azaleas – which can carry the disease – in their yards and gardens, Garbelotto said residents need not avoid them as long as they are not planted next to an infected oak.

His lab's website has photos showing what the leaves of an infected tree look like and information about easy-to-use testing kits.

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