"Sudden Oak Death is a very serious and sad disease that has killed many large and beautiful native Oak trees on our property. While we have planted many younger Oak trees to replace failed ones, it will take decades of growth before the same grandeur and beauty is achieved that previously existed. We have learned to follow guidelines for prevention and treatment of our many Oak woodlands to minimize our losses."
Lou Bouc,
Facilities Manager,
Skywalker Ranch
Public Concern About Invasive Tree Killing Insects and Diseases Remains Strong
What You Can Do
Learn to identify invasive forest pests. If you spot a potential pest or disease on trees in your community, click here to report it.
Clean your boots before you hike in a new area to avoid spreading harmful weed seeds and diseases such as sudden oak death.
Avoid packing a pest when traveling. Fruits and vegetables, plants, insects and animals can carry pests or become invasive themselves.
Don't move firewood, cuttings or live plants more than 50 miles because they can harbor pests.
Volunteer at your local park, refuge or other wildlife area to help remove invasive species.
Support the Conservancy's work to protect trees.
And, if you work in the nursery industry:
Join the Plant Smart campaign to help protect your business and America's trees.
Urge the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to quickly enact regulations that prevent harmful foreign species from attacking your business and our native trees.
Ask your suppliers about best management practices they have adopted to reduce this risk.
Trees, plants and shrubs imported into the United States can have harmful hitchhikers, such as beetles buried in the wood of a sapling, or tiny mites on the leaves of a flowering plant. Find out more about the pests that kill trees in our parks and neighborhoods, choke farmland, and devastate forests.
"The nursery industry faces huge costs both to control the pests and in loss of sales and other interruptions," says Jerry Lee of the nationwide Monrovia Nursery. We can stand together against the threat these invasive foreign pests pose to nature and the economy. Learn how you can help and join Plant Smart in support of stronger regulations to protect your trees.