Año de Publicación
2025Breve descripción
The Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) has been actively combating oak wilt, a fungal disease threatening oak trees, through various programs, partnerships, and educational efforts, saving millions of trees and generating significant economic benefits.
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Texto Completo
Fungal Disease Threatens Oak Trees Caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fagaceurum, oak wilt kills live oaks and red oaks by plugging up water conducting tissues. Hundreds of thousands of oak trees have been killed in 73 Central and West Texas counties. TFS Response:- With funding from the U.S. Forest Service, Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) launched the Cooperative Oak Wilt Suppression Project in Central Texas in 1988. The program continues to operate today.
- Affected landowners receive technical assistance and federal cost shares to manage expanding oak wilt centers in live oak motts and to remove infected red oaks.
- TFS partnered with other organizations to develop and maintain a dedicated oak wilt management website: www.texasoakwilt.org.
- To expand technical assistance for landowners, TFS has collaborated with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to train hundreds of certified arborists, master naturalists, and master gardeners as “oak wilt specialists.”
- TFS foresters have hosted numerous oak wilt workshops and conducted on-site consultations with landowners affected by oak wilt.
- In partnership with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, TFS has organized and sponsored two National Oak Wilt Symposiums to advance oak wilt research and management practices.
- Since 1988, 3.9 million feet of cost-shared trenches have been installed to halt the spread of 2,772 oak wilt centers in 42 Central Texas counties. This is equivalent to a trench running from Houston to El Paso (739 miles).
- Over a five-year period, an estimated 1.6 million trees on 56,000 acres have been saved due to efforts to halt the spread of oak wilt in 2,772 treated centers.
- Benefit-to-cost ratios for trenching to halt oak wilt spread are conservatively estimated at an average of 6:1, ranging from 2:1 in rural, non-residential areas to 13:1 in suburban locations.
- The $20 million in federal, state, and private funds invested in oak wilt management since 1988 has generated an estimated $120 million in benefits.
- The oak wilt website has become the definitive resource for oak wilt information in Texas, with a growing user base and expanded content.
- More than 800 master gardeners and certified arborists have been trained as “oak wilt specialists” to provide valuable expertise in Central Texas.