To the editor:
By now, I hope word about the potentially disastrous arrival of the sudden oak death pathogen in Indiana has reached most Brown Countians. One can tell that the level of the threat is high when the Purdue University Landscape Report compares its potential to the devastation wrought by emerald ash borer and Dutch elm disease, which have permanently changed our hardwood forests in our lifetimes. In a poignant plea for vigilance, the report author asks us to “imagine how different things would look if someone had recognized the first dying ash in Detroit and identified the cause.”
By the time you read this, the pathogen that causes sudden oak death has found its way into 70 Walmarts and 18 Rural Kings in Indiana, the epicenter of the current infestation. Although it was identified on rhododendrons (one of more than 100 host plant species), according to the Purdue report it could easily and likely have spread to the other nursery plants on sale in the vicinity (azaleas, euonymous, lilac, viburnum, periwinkle). So, basically, the cat is out of the bag in Indiana. And Indiana now will have the regrettable distinction of being the vector for what is a potentially landscape-level change in our Midwestern hardwood forests.
Will we ever learn? When will those in charge of Indiana’s DNR — those responsible for the health and sustainability of our treasured forests — decide to dedicate the resources required to catch these deadly invasives before they become established? The sudden loss of the oaks? The walnuts dying of a thousand cankers (a disaster already brewing just to our east)? A full-blown outbreak of Asian longhorn beetles, which would decimate our maples (again, Ohio is in the throes of such an outbreak)?
It is clear that the current practice of the DNR Division of Entomology was inadequate to catch and stop this infestation. They relied on random checks of nursery stock already on sale at the retail level. They have no way of tracking sales, especially cash sales. They do know infected plants were sold to the public.
If you have purchased a landscaping shrub from a Walmart or Rural King this spring, please check it now. I’m sure the Democrat’s article on this will include contact info on reporting suspicious plants.
Sincerely,
Linda Baden, Brown County
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