Residents are urged to help keep ‘oak wilt’ at bay

The village is urging its residents to follow pruning guidelines to prevent the fungal disease “oak wilt” from reaching local trees.

Village Tree Commission Chairwoman Meg Crawford said this week that the problem has been spreading from Midwestern states.

“It’s affected the Middle West in a big way,” Crawfiord said. “They have found very, very small pockets of it in New York state. There is no treatment for this, but there are preventative measures that can be taken.”

Trees primarily at risk for oak wilt are red oaks, pin oaks and chestnut oaks. Crawford said the disease can also infest white oak trees but that there are fewer of those in the area.

“This virus that kills the tree very quickly is carried by a sap beetle,” she said. “So to prevent the sap beetle from getting into trees, people are asked not to prune or take down oak trees between the months of March and September, when the sap beetle is active.”

According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the oak wilt fungus “blocks the flow of water and nutrients from the roots to the crown, causing the leaves to wilt and fall off, usually killing the tree.”

Red oaks can die within a few weeks to six months of being affected, and the disease spreads quickly from tree to tree, the department says.

The oak wilt threat comes on top of other problems that are impacting other popular trees.

“We know that ash trees everywhere in town are dying,” Crawford said, and “the maple trees are threatened by the Asian longhorn beetle .... ”

The village of Rhinebeck recently was awarded its seventh Tree City award by the Arbor Day Foundation. Crawford said keeping trees protected from new threats is important to maintaining the village’s character and the environment.

“Oak trees are one of our most majestic trees,” she said.