OAKS: SUDDEN DEATH
The Monday Garden, December 12, 2004, Issue 141
Eco-gardening at its best
the FREE weekly email
It started in California, as many things do. And like so many things Californian, we, on the East Coast, think if we ignore them long enough, they'll go away. Seldom happens. Now, there's an advisory out from the Connecticut Department of Forestry of "a very troubling development".
![]() | ![]() |
Pictures: The young red oak in the vest pocket park at Hoyt and Prospect Streets in Stamford, CT, fall 2004
"Sudden Oak Death" is not a kind of baseball or poker. It's a stealthy serial killer of our great American oaks. Unless you look closely, the tree seems fine; but, then, suddenly, it wilts and dies in a month. However, the signs are there a year or two earlier-- inspect the trunk carefully for irregularities such as lesions or seeping sap.



