{"id":18511,"date":"2013-03-19T16:35:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T23:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=18511"},"modified":"2013-05-17T15:05:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T22:05:56","slug":"emergency-group-hears-goldspotted-oak-borer-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2013\/03\/19\/emergency-group-hears-goldspotted-oak-borer-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency group hears Goldspotted oak borer update"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
After chipping bark on the downed oak, GSOB Program Director Kevin Turner, holds live larvae in his hand. Tom Scott said there were more than 500 live larvae in the tree. Photo by Marshall Smith <\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nCAL FIRE Unit Forester Chief Gregg Bratcher delivered some good news \u2014 federal grant extensions \u2014 and some bad news \u2014 more Goldspotted oak borer infested oak trees \u2014 to the Mountain Emergency Services Committee on Thursday, March 14. <\/p>\n

The good news is that a current CAL FIRE tree removal grant, which was originally authorized during the bark beetle crisis in the early part of the last decade, will pay 100 percent of the cost to private landowners for removal of Goldspotted oak borer infected black oaks. Hill landowners will not be required to pay 25 to 30 percent of tree removal costs, a cost sharing that was standard for the bark beetle Forest Care program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will not be a cost share,\u201d Bratcher said. \u201cWe already have a contractor set up.\u201d The cost to remove a large oak, depending on proximity to a structure, could easily exceed $2,000, according to Bratcher, who believes landowners will welcome the news of eliminating any cost sharing.<\/p>\n

The bad news, said Bratcher, is that two more infested trees have been discovered, raising the current known total to nine. The two recently identified infested oaks are on Marion View Drive across from the American Legion. This is the same location of a very large GSOB-infected oak that Southern California Edison crews removed on Thursday, March 14.
\n

\"\"
Edison crew member cuts a section of the tree for Tom Scott and other scientists to use for study. Photo by Marshall Smith <\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nUCR Natural Resource Specialist Tom Scott, one of the lead GSOB scientists, estimated this oak had more than 500 live larvae. \u201cIt was heavily infested,\u201d Scott said. Scott advised any landowner with oaks near the American Legion to start monitoring their trees carefully, inasmuch as wider oak infestation in that area is likely, given the high numbers of live larvae in the recently removed oak.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, there are three \u2018micro areas\u2019 of GSOB infestation that have been identified in Idyllwild,\u201d Bratcher said \u2014 Highway 243 from Mountaintop Liquor to the Bella Montagna Italian Restaurant, the area around Town Hall and the Marion View Drive area. Bratcher advised that when oaks began to leaf out in the spring, further oak borer infestation may be visible \u2014 from leaf die off, abnormalities in the leaves themselves and an unusual number of woodpeckers foraging in the trees for beetle larvae.<\/p>\n

\u201cAerial photographs have identified about 6,000 Hill black oaks of the size that Goldspotted oak borer could attack in the wider Idyllwild area,\u201d Scott said. A team of trained local oak borer spotting volunteers, comprised mainly of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council Woodies, will begin deploying for site visits in the three identified areas. They will then contact landowners if their oaks exhibit signs of infestation. <\/p>\n

Bratcher advised landowners, \u201cIf you have questions, call the GSOB hotline.\u201d That number is (951) 659-8328. He said that scientists, looking at sections of the infested local trees, believe Goldspotted oak borer has probably been in Idyllwild for two or three seasons. \u201cIt was brought in by firewood,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is a 98 percent certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAL FIRE Unit Forester Chief Gregg Bratcher delivered some good news \u2014 federal grant extensions \u2014 and some bad news \u2014 more Goldspotted oak borer infested oak tree …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[20],"yoast_head":"\nEmergency group hears Goldspotted oak borer update • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2013\/03\/19\/emergency-group-hears-goldspotted-oak-borer-update\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2013\/03\/19\/emergency-group-hears-goldspotted-oak-borer-update\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/memscomm7117.jpg\",\"width\":\"500\",\"height\":\"333\",\"caption\":\"After chipping bark on the downed oak, GSOB Program Director Kevin Turner, holds live larvae in his hand. 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