Can we save our oaks from oak wilt?
There are not many things more heartbreaking for Texans than to watch our mighty oaks succumb to Oak Wilt. There are several things we can do to prevent the spread of oak wilt and keep oaks as part of our local landscape.
Rachel McGregor, Texas Forestry Service’s Oak Wilt expert for our region will introduce us to Oak Wilt, including prevention, identification and disease management (when to prune, how it spreads and options for stopping the spread) at our Monday evening meeting.
We will then follow up with a field day at High Hope Ranch, Tuesday morning from 10:00 AM – noon, so we can put what we’ve learned to the test. We will see live oaks with and without oak wilt and discuss the best interventions and protocols. This will help us all be able to identify what is going on in our own property and neighborhood. If you would like to join us at High Hope Ranch (adjacent to Fossil Rim’s Overlook) please let our program chair, Sandra Skrei know by emailing her.
A great link for your further research: http://texasoakwilt.org/oakwilt/
Rachel McGregor is from Springtown, Texas. She is married and has an almost two year old red headed son, Resin, and yes what they say about a red heads temper is true. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelors of Science in Urban Forestry in 2010, while working on undergraduate research with Dr. David Appel at Texas A&M University on oak wilt. Rachel received a Masters of Science in Plant Pathology with an emphasis on Nematology from Tarleton State University in 2012. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Cross Timbers Urban Forestry Council and is an ISA Certified Arborist . Rachel has been working as a Staff Forester II in Granbury for almost three years and her goal is to educate the public on the importance of early detection and management options for Oak wilt, while also assisting landowners with helpful stewardship information and resources for their property.
Rachel was recruited from Texas A&M to attend Tarleton as one of the first graduate students in Forestry. She is the Staff Forester in the Forest Resource Development & Sustainable Forestry division for Texas A&M Forest Service. She is one of seven foresters to cover land owner outreach in the entire state of Texas. Each state in the United States has a forestry agency, but Texas was the first in the nation to establish its state forestry agency as part of a land-grant college.
The Prairie Rose Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas has a short business meeting starting at 6:00 PM Monday, March 14 (and the second Monday of every month), followed at 6:30 by a joint program with the Somervell County Master Gardener’s CHES program. The public is always welcome to attend. We meet at the Somervell County Senior Citizen’s Building, just off Glen Rose’s square.