Disease

By Gabriel Popkin, The Washington Post

Ohio biologist John Pogacnik admits to mixed feelings about having discovered the latest disease imperiling a major American tree.

Pogacnik first noticed American beech trees with striped and shriveled leaves in 2012 during a routine survey of forests owned by his employer, Lake Metroparks. He didn’t think much of it at first: Just a few trees looked sick, and it had been a strange year, with an unusually warm winter and dry spring.

By Lydia Taylor

Researchers say they are stumped by a disease that’s infecting beech trees in Northeast Ohio.

Beech leaf disease can be identified by curling leaves with dark stripes. The leaves fall earlier than normal and prevents the tree from blooming the next season.

Mike Watson, conservation biologist at Holden Arboretum, says the cause of the disease and how it spreads is unknown.

By Patrick Barkham

Scientists .identify first tree to show strong tolerance to the disease raising hopes of developing a resistant strain.

She has a silver-grey trunk, is 200-years-old and unusually resilient. Betty, a mature ash tree in Norfolk, is offering hope that ash dieback disease will not be as destructive as first feared after scientists identified her “strong tolerance” to the disease.

A one-two punch of dwarf mistletoe disease and bark beetles have threatened thousands of acres of trees in the Boise National Forest.

Every year, dwarf mistletoe and bark beetles attack trees at Bogus Basin from the ground up. 

"Typically they'll kill three to 10 trees at a time," said Stephaney Kerley with the Forest Service. "What we're seeing right now is bark beetles are killing pockets of 50 to 100 trees at a time."

It's an epidemic that will change the face of Bogus Basin forever.