Good afternoon San Diego County Planning Groups,
Below you will find an introduction to an urgent situation in San Diego County with regards to an invasive pest affecting Oak Trees. While you will generally find largest population of Oak Trees in the east and north east portions of our county; the potential for this invasive pest to spread far and wide through firewood movement is possible. Your help in disseminating this information to your communities is a great step in the right direction towards helping control the spread of this devastating Oak Tree pest. I have also included a link to the main information website, there you will find several resource brochures like the ones I attached to this email to share with your community.
http://ucanr.org/sites/
Invasive Pest Information:
Goldspotted Oak Borer
Goldspotted oak borer (GSOB) Agrilus coxalis, was first detected
in California (San Diego Co.) in 2004 during a trap
survey for invasive tree pests. In 2008 this borer was linked
to elevated levels of oak mortality ongoing in San Diego Co.
since 2002. Its existence in CA may date back to as early as
1996, based on examinations of previously killed oaks.
GSOB is native to Arizona and Mexico and was likely introduced
into southern CA via infested oak firewood. It is a
serious pest of coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, canyon live
oak, Q. chrysolepis and California black oak, Q. kelloggii in
CA and has killed more than 20,000 trees across 620,000
acres.
GSOB-killed oaks have only been found in San Diego Co. to date, however, it is expected that the area
of infestation will continue to extend north beyond the county line and tree mortality will continue to
increase due to adult flight from infested trees and new infestations initiated through beetles emerging
from transported firewood.
Thank you,
Jeff Stoffel
Vegetation Manager
County of San Diego
Office 619-660-5820
Cell 619-857-0391
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