Humans fostering forest-destroyi...(ontrol it is by detecting early it at lo...)

Over the past 4 years I have directed an early detection program in which we have been sampling over a thousand sites all over high-risk habitats in California, guided by our computer risk models, he noted.

Whether the disease is at risk to spread beyond its current range, particularly to eastern North Americas oak-rich forests, is still unclear.

Eastern forest trees like red oak and pin oak have been shown to be susceptible in the lab, Meentemeyer warns. There are models that show what areas might be at risk based on climate matching with California, but we cant validate the models yet. The disease is not there, so we dont know what conditions in nature are favorable or not we have very different weather conditions and very different plant species in these forests. The Eastern forests are certainly at risk, but we dont know to what degree at this time.