Surgical procedure for Sudden Oak Death

(See February 26, 2019 update here.)

Yesterday I worked on several coast live oak trees on a property here in Big Sur, where  some of the oaks have been infected with a stem canker infection, probably Sudden Oak Death. The incidence of Sudden Oak Death had increased dramatically here in Big Sur, likely a result of the previous (2017) winter’s extreme wetness. In fact, five severely infected oaks were removed from this same property the previous day. The owner has decide on a new course of action and has employed my services, which involve fire mimicry treatments to his oaks. In addition to these treatments, I performed several surgical procedures to remove the stem canker infections. Here are a series of photos from one such procedure.

Infection prior to surgery, with disinfected tools and tarps to collect infected tissue.

Removing stem canker infection with axe.

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