Counties unite in effort to get more cash to fight tree virus

County commissioners from five southwestern Oregon counties will send a letter next week to the Oregon state forester asking that the state support the maximum amount of state match to federal dollars allocated next year toward eradicating Sudden Oak Death.

Curry County Commissioner Georgia Nowlin said the letter will be signed by those commissioners who will be attending the Association of Oregon Counties annual convention in Portland.

“Last fiscal year, although $825,000 in federal SOD eradication monies were available, the state was unable to provide match for but $159,200 of those funds,” the letter says.

“The funding bottleneck at this time is at the state level. It was suggested that a letter be generated and signed by the commissioners from District 4 – Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine counties,” she said.

The letter to State Forester Marvin Brown says that the commissioners from the five counties recognize the potentially devastating economic and environmental effects of the widening spread of Sudden Oak Death to southern Oregon and the rest of the state.

It asks the state for “the maximum amount of state match to federal dollars allocated to combat SOD, to best leverage the funds toward eradicating this pathogen while it is still manageable.”

“In Curry County, many private landowners were unable to have their dead and dying trees removed, contributing to the further spread of this disease and loss of good will,” the letter says. “This current fiscal year, we understand that a similar amount of federal dollars will be available for SOD, but again, state matching nonfederal funds are needed.”

The letter says that with the current control policy, the counties of Curry, Coos, Josephine and Douglas are at risk to be under quarantine within a 20 year period.

“For these same economically fragile O&C counties, the costs to both our forest and nursery industries under quarantine would be devastating,” the letter says.

“Oregon forest and nursery industries outside the quarantine areas will also be affected, with loss of consumer confidence and the potential boycott of Oregon products. Again, the economic costs would be enormous,” it continues.

“While we understand that the Oregon Department of Forestry has not escaped budget problems due to current economic conditions, allocating sufficient moneys to utilize Federal funding on SOD now will offer the best return on dollars spent, on many levels,” it says.

Phytophthora Ramorum, a previously unknown and recently introduced nonnative pathogen, is the cause of Sudden Oak Death and Ramorum leaf and twig blight. It has killed hundreds of thousands of oak and tan oak trees in 14 coastal counties in California and hundreds of tan oak trees in Curry County.

Other trees besides tan oak that are killed by the disease include black oaks, liveoaks, and possibly madrones, but not white oaks. The disease also affects some plants such as rhododendron, and it causes a leaf blight on the Oregon myrtlewood.

SOD was first found in Oregon, in the Brookings area, in 2001, spreading up from California

The Oregon Forestry Department has found 41 new Sudden Oak Death infestations in Curry County this year, totaling 14 acres, said a September report by Forest Pathologist Alan Kanaskie.

The report said most of the new sites are within the core area where the tree disease has been found before, but several are in new places along the west and northwest edge of the core area following a somewhat predictable pattern of spread.

“A notable new site is in the Redwood trail area (US Forest Service) downstream of the 2006 site,” the report said. “Also notable is an infected tree picked up during a disease-free certification ground survey for South Coast Lumber. It is the farthest north site detected since 2007. Also of concern are the numerous infested sides on non-industrial property in the vicinity of Taylor, Duley, and Ram creeks.”

Since Sudden Oak Death was first found in the Brookings area, about $4 million has been used to slow the spread of the tree disease, including $1.35 million from the state.