Beech trees from Ohio to Maine are dying from a pernicious disease linked to a microscopic parasite, and the push is on to control the pathogen and to find resistant trees that might be needed to one day repopulate the species.
One of the symptoms of beech leef disease is dark green coloring between veins. This photo was taken in the Stebbins Gulch natural area at Holden Arboretum.KIRTLAND, Ohio –
What appears particularly insidious with beech leaf disease is that it seems to be preying on the young. At Cleveland Metroparks, where researchers have been monitoring some 300 beech trees across several of its reservations, the disease has been generally fatal to saplings and seedlings, killing them within two to five years, said Daniel Volk, forest health project coordinator with Cleveland Metroparks.
“When we want to prove or show that the nematode causes beech leaf disease, we need live critters to do that,” Burke said. The work has already begun at Holden Arboretum, where this past winter cuttings from some 50 trees that showed signs of possible resistance were grafted onto to healthy rootstock.
It has since been found across the Pennsylvania and into New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and most recently Maine. It’s also in parts of southern Ontario. But the evidence was circumstantial, and that’s when Holden Arboretum stepped in to help provide conclusive proof.Mary C. Pitts/Holden ArboretumHolden staff collected beech leaves from its own property and floated them in water to collect the nematodes, which need moisture to move around. They then inoculated healthy trees by applying nematodes immersed in water to dormant buds, which is where the tiny critters do their damage.
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