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Oak Wilt

J

Jerry Gille

Member
A few years back I started noticing dying oak trees on one ridge. 5 or 6 shingle and black oaks had died in a group. I watched the next couple years and saw that it was spreading to other close oaks in all directions. Two years ago I had a private forester come out to renew my forest management plan. By then it had jumped over to another ridge and was spreading there too. He confirmed what I suspected - oak wilt. He told me it would stop eventually and not to worry too much about it.

Fast forward to today and it isn't even close to stopping. There are 4 large spots now with - I don't know - maybe 50 or more dead oaks. I am losing a bunch right now in fact.

I called the my district forester here in Illinois and he did not have good news for me. He told me it would likely spread to every tree that is touching roots of the red oak species. He suggested I kill all red oaks all the way around the spots where I think roots might be touching.

I have babied this timber for the 13 years I've owned it. I have improved it immensely and work on it every winter after deer season. I am absolutely sick to my stomach over this.

About 5 or 6 years ago I had 4 large white oaks near my back fence just die all of a sudden. They were my prized trees. I never knew what killed them. I walked back there after seeing other spots where the oak wilt had spread and I have dead oaks everywhere and it looks like my neighbor's oaks got napalmed across the fence.

I'm about to puke honestly. I am scared to freaking death. Anyone have any experience with this? Should I go on a killing mission or let it run its course? Trenching is not practical back there so killing or ignoring seem to be the only tools I have.
 
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I thought you had to isolate and kill to get in front of it or it will continue to spread until it kills them all where the roots are in contact.
 
I’m noticing dead oaks in my timber on 40 acre farm in Minnesota. I think it’s 3 dead ones now. All close . Huge Bummer !
 
Stoney said:
I thought you had to isolate and kill to get in front of it or it will continue to spread until it kills them all where the roots are in contact.
Click to expand...

That’s what I’m getting from the forester’s suggestion as well. Kill a few by yourself to stop the spread or let it kill all your oaks. I know what I’d be doing. Sacrifice 10 trees to save 100.


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Thanks for the responses all. And sorry for the double post.

The district forester is going to walk it with me in early September. It looks like I'll be killing lots of good oaks to try and contain this. Of ocurse I'll still have oak wilt in my woods and so will my neighbor(s) so it's likely to show up again.

The 2 ridges impacted the most are of course the 2 best hunting spots on the entire place. It appears as though I will be killing treestand trees (shingle oaks) that I've hunted out of for years. When I'm done, there won't be anything left to even hunt out of in those immediate areas.

I'm going to need some time here and lots of adult beverages to work through all of this. I killed a few large cedars, a large multi-trunked birch, and a large cottonwood in this area just this last winter to provide more space for oak trees that have either died or are about to die by my hand. It really makes a guy think twice about doing TSI work that limits some of the diversity for a given area.

I appreciate the input eveyrone.
 
Yep. Create a barrier.
Also- aggressively free up any white, burr, swamp or other desirable tree to fill in fast!!!!!!
 
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