[APWG] (no subject)

[ForestRuss at aol.com]

Info I would like to spread along.
 
Russ Richardson
 
 
_http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/open_access/news/347800582466931.php_ 
(http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/open_access/news/347800582466931.php) 
 
 
Beetle wreaking  havoc 

Mon, Feb 4,  2008 
By EMILY STRANGER 

The Brunswick News 
The tree outlived children that climbed its branches and lovers that  
picnicked under its shade. 
Now, all that remains is a stump. 
The 125-year-old tree at the corner of the historical Horton House at 375  
Riverview Drive on Jekyll Island was arguably the oldest Red Bay tree in the  
United States. 
It had to be eradicated last fall after becoming infected with Laurel Wilt  
disease, an infection caused by a fungus. 

Jekyll Island  Authority Landscape Superintendent Cliff Gowron kneels on the 
stump of a  Red Bay tree next to the Horton House ruins on Jekyll Island. The 
tree,  once considered to be one of the largest Red Bay trees in the country, 
had  to be cut down in November due to an infestation of beetles that killed  
the tree. (Michael Hall/The Brunswick News  photo)

The Red Ambrosia beetle, an invasive species from Asia, spreads the fungus  
from tree to tree and is wreaking havoc along the coasts of Georgia, South  
Carolina and Florida. 
Cliff Gawron, landscape superintendent with the Jekyll Island Authority,  
worries that all the Red Bay trees on the island could disappear within the next  
couple of years. 
"It's so bad that they're all nearly wiped out now," he said Friday. "I  
would say over 70 percent are dead already." 
     (http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/services/subscribe2.php) 
Red Bay trees have a limited commercial use but are extremely important for  
wildlife. Their seeds are eaten by turkeys, quail, deer and song birds. A rare 
 butterfly – the Palamedes butterfly – lays its eggs on the tree's leaves. 
If the Red Bays go extinct, the butterfly would follow suit. 
Landscapers with the Jekyll Island Authority and foresters with the Georgia  
Forestry Commission have been battling the problem for over a year now. In  
December 2006, they cut down and burned more than 500 red bay trees at the state 
 park to halt the beetle plague. 
When that didn't work, they engaged in chemical warfare with fungicides and  
insecticides, all to no avail. 
"They're just too aggressive," said Gawron. "After the beetle inoculates a  
tree, it dies within a few days." 
But all hope is not lost, said Chip Bates, a forest health specialist with  
the Georgia Forestry Commission. 
He has been on the forefront of beetle annihilation since the species was  
first discovered in the state in 2002. 
Bates said there are promising remedies in the works. 
"We haven't found any silver bullet that will take care of the problem, but  
we have some new chemical methods showing great promise," he said. 
The resolution may not be in stopping the beetles. Instead, scientists are  
focusing their energies on the fungus. 
"There's some interesting stuff being done right now as we speak," Bates  
said. "Instead of injecting pesticide into the trees to kill the beetles,  
scientists are injecting a new chemical that kills the fungus." 
But as Jekyll Island's Red Bay forest dies around him, Gawron worries the  
solution won't come in time to save the trees. 
"It's so bad that Red Bay trees everywhere, and not just (on Jekyll), could  
become extinct," he said.

 
 
 



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