Tracks of an Oak Killer

An informative story on sudden oak death (which has nearly wiped out the tan oaks and toppled some huge live oaks around our Healdsburg house) from recent UCSC Science Communications grad Erin Loury:
http://sciencenotes.ucsc.edu/2012/pages/oaks/oaks.html

Top of the story:

The oak tree is so massive that it takes a minute for us to spot signs of the attack. A half dozen enormous branches arch over us, dividing into twisted limbs that stretch to the ground and form a cavernous tent of shiny green leaves. My guide, UC Berkeley researcher Doug Schmidt, works his flashlight over the chest-high base of one branch. Unlike the rest of the trunk, this patch is bare of frilled lichens and tendrils of moss. “See how it’s brown and bruised here?” he says. “That’s the disease fighting its way into the tree, and the tree defending itself.”

It’s a hopeless attempt. When the weather warms, an oozing red sap will bleed from the trunk as the silent killer marches around it, severing the tree’s food and water supply. In a year or two, all life will have drained from this century-old sentinel at the entrance of Sonoma County’s Fairfield Osborn Preserve. One powerful gust of wind could snap the skeleton tree, sending its stately crown of branches crashing to the earth.

All from a bit of slime.
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