Waging war on "oak wilt"

[hotwine]

The oaks affected include the "live oak", a form of white oak; and the red oak, which has a leaf like a maple tree. Have no idea as to the Latin names of either of them. Both become infected with a fungus transmitted by a beetle that burrows under the bark or through an open wound. Once infected, a live oak propagates the disease through its root system, which is often a common network from which many trees have emerged. A live oak dies within a year, while a red oak lasts less than a month. The purpose of trenching is to sever the root networks and thereby disrupt transmission; the trenches are 4 1/2 ft deep but only 4 1/2 inches wide, and are immediately covered by the same machine that digs the trench - no need to leave them open, since the objective is simply to sever the root system. We have both live oaks and red oaks on our place here, but so far, only some of the live oaks are infected. I'll have to cut down the infected trees as soon as they're fully dried out. Anybody need any firewood?

There are other forms of oak in the state (burr oak, pin oak, post oak, etc.) but don't know of their susceptibility to the disease.

[This message has been edited by hotwine (edited 12-16-2003).]