Calling all volunteer nature sleuths: The first weekend in May is your opportunity to collect and record locations of symptomatic bay leaves for the East Bay Sudden Oak Death Blitz.
Volunteers attend a one-hour training and collection materials distribution session 10 a.m. May 2 in the Gallery Room at the Orinda Library. Email Bill Hudson at wllhh2@ymail.com to confirm training is happening. They then collect bay leaves during the weekend, as time allows, and record the detailed GPS location of each sampled tree. Collected specimens will be analyzed at a lab in Berkeley.
Sudden Oak Death, a serious and exotic disease, is threatening the survival of tanoak and several other oak species in California. Timely detection of the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, often found on bay leaves and generally precedes oak infections, is key for a successful, proactive attempt to slow down the SOD epidemic.
For more information on Sudden Oak Death Blitz, go to www.sodblitz.org.
