New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation confirms a fungus that kills oak trees has been found in Canandaigua.
Oak Wilt has been previously detected on Long Island and in the Albany Area going back about eight years. DEC experts say if left untreated, it spreads quickly and kills the trees. The leaves quickly turn from green to brown and the tree can die within six months.
Ontario County officials have begun taking survey and control measures used to control the fungus in Suffolk and Schenectady Counties. DEC staff is contacting property owners near the infected tree and asking permission to come on their land and check for more signs of the disease. There’s no way to treat it except to cut down infected trees and a belt of surrounding trees. Moving oak firewood out of the infected areas has to be banned.
The infection was discovered when a concerned homeowner called Cornell Cooperative Extension about an oak tree that died for no apparent cause.