Oak Wilt in the Canyon Lake Area Article 2 in the Oak Wilt Series - Current Protocol Is Fundamentally Flawed and It Has Become A Scam In Practice
Current Protocol for Affirming Oak Wilt isn’t Effective
The current protocol used by Texas A&M Forest Service, arborists and tree contractors is to mitigate oak wilt in its later stages of development, after it has already spread and killed trees. At this later-stage development, oak wilt mitigation efforts are very limited in scope and strategy which has led to mitigation failures.
With such a high percentage of mitigation failures, why does the current protocol continue? The reason is very simple in that there is an absence of early detection. In fact, there is not any type of organized early detection and monitoring techniques in the current protocol.
Most oak wilt activity is detected by homeowners that have suffered the loss of multiple trees, leading them to contact the forest service and/or an arborist. The forest service agents will come out and look at the trees and, in many cases, will not be able to make a positive evaluation because there is not a clear and visible mortality pattern. There can be dead trees present but lack a clear mortality pattern. In the current protocol, this leads to a ‘wait and see’ scenario which is the right step if a monitoring schedule is activated that would produce a positive evaluation in a timely manner.
The Startzville Hot Spot Spread for 3 Years Before an Actual Positive Read for Oak Wilt
This is the scenario that played out in the Startzville hot spot. Once the suspected hot spot was discovered in 2011, Texas A&M was notified. An agent visited the site and could not make a positive read because he lacked monitoring data and an insufficient mortality spread pattern to make a positive read. He came back three years later and discovered a significant mortality pattern which then enabled him to give it a positive read for oak wilt.
The problem with this protocol is that it allows the oak wilt to spread undetected for years sometimes before any mitigation effort is in place. This results in higher cost, more dead trees, and fewer sound mitigation opportunities. Mitigation efforts in these late stages have a high chance of being unsuccessful because the root spread boundaries within developed areas is next to impossible to define.
When oak wilt spreads for years undetected in developed areas there are a list of challenges that it brings:
1. The underground root spread can be enormous and complex.
2. In this late stage, it will usually involve many different property owners and often there is a conflict of coordination and trenching efforts. Some property owners will not cooperate, and some will on a limited basis. This creates a monumental task that at best will only save some trees.
3. The cost to mitigate in these advanced stages can skyrocket. By the time the Startzville hot spot was affirmed, the cost to trench alone was $80k plus and there was a loss of many trees.
4. Later stage developed hot spots can create an oak wilt stigma, affecting property values and real estate activity. (Some people will choose to not build in an area that has oak wilt).
In conclusion, the current protocol for the mitigation of oak wilt in developed communities is not working and the statistics confirm this. In many cases the current protocol actually leads to no mitigation efforts being done which is what happened in the Startzville hot spot. Because no mitigation efforts took place in Startzville at the first visit, the oak wilt had three years to continue to spread and infect adjacent trees. There are contractors, arborist and forest agents involved in mitigation techniques and efforts that cover these late-stage practices, but homeowners are not always aware that they may not be successful. In fact the current oak wilt enterprise throughout the state of Texas has become a money driven scam machine on every level from the educational side involving the preferred protocol to the daily practice of the protocol by vendors and arborist under the guise of being Oak Wilt Qualified? I will list numerically just a few examples of the deception that permeates the current protocol.
The Oak Wilt Qualified certification is only a 3 day. To be promoted as an expert on Oak Wilt after only 3 days of training is deceptive. Expertise to the complexity and challenges involving monitoring and mitigation efforts cannot be imparted in only 3 days. The Texas A&M forest service has been trying to harness the oak wilt epidemic for over 30 years without success based upon accurate metrics. Scientifically their two primary techniques do what they are designed to do in a controlled experimental environment, but in reality they have not been successful with a cost to benefit ratio being the bottom line.
They have manipulated the metrics to reflect inflated success numbers. For example they boast that the trenching is 70% successful. They derive at this number by only using 3 hand picked properties that participate in their cost sharing program. For example they take a project like Hollywood Park which has an active oak wilt center that is over 20 years old and it cover at least 40 acres involving many different properties and yet they consider the trenching in that project as a success based upon the fact that they saw limited success in only three hand picked properties to derive at their metrics.
The existing protocol was amended and created over 15 years ago at a national symposium involving Texas, Michigan, Minnesota and other states. To create a protocol that was a one size fits all they for example established that beetles were active from February to July implying that the rest of the months they are inactive. Not true in Texas. In Texas beetles are active year round with the peak time of activity being in February (per Dr. Appel). In Michigan the beetles to hibernate during their cold winters so the February to July timeline is more applicable to their climate. This is misleading because many people are under the impression that if they just do not prune during those months that they are good and protected from oak wilt.
Property owners are drawn to vendors and arborist that are promoting their techniques as the solution to stopping oak wilt. In many cases they are applying their technique to trees that are not infected with oak wilt. In our eco system and climate theirs a large number of trees that are under stress and hydration that is causes the trees to decline, with discoloration and defoliation symptoms that to the typical property owner it looks like it could be oak wilt. Vendors are treating these trees with their techniques that always involve some sort of bio feed in the mix, that has ingredients such as nitrogen and other formulas that in fact enhance growth and coloration, so that the property owner thinks that the trees are being saved. This scam can lead to vendors returning year after year and sometimes multiple times each year to continue these treatments with the property owner thinking that this is a necessary step to save their trees be it preventive and/or therapeutic.
Trenching is absolutely non effective in the hill country on top of the limestone Karst formation. Again using Hollywood Park as an example they had a Texas A&M forest agent who was at that time the designated oak wilt expert in Texas as a resident and was involved in the mitigation efforts and after years of trenching and the oak wilt continuing to spread he crawled into a cave entrance in the area and discovered that some of the infected roots were deeper than they were able to trench so he immediately halted the trenching because it was not effective.
These are just a few examples of the failure and cover up scam that now permeates the oak wilt enterprise in operation throughout Texas.
The most damning indictment against the existing protocol is that there’s no proactive monitoring in place. All of the the mitigation is reactive to oak wilt spread after the damage is done and then to try to mitigate without proper monitoring in place is at best a stab in the dark. How can you mitigate something that you cannot accurately judge it’s existence without monitoring in place to determine with accuracy the size and direction of active spread patterns. This fundamental flaw lead within the current protocol guarantees failure from the get go that is not only hidden from the naive home owner but it is falsely presented as a successful oak wilt mitigation effort. I want to reiterate that it is unclear how much of this practice is premeditated verses in ignorance and incompetence.
Tribemania is committed to being straight forth and honest in our oak wilt services that we provide exclusively to our subscriber membership base. Our approach is from a research development format that is committed to only use techniques that are viable for the hill country and in doing so we will not mislead our members with skewed metrics and Houdini type practices that can easily be hidden from the average homeowner.
Our commitment to our members is to be honest in everyway and to make every effort within our expertise to successfully monitor and mitigate in their behalf based upon our Research and Development Program that every member has educational access to how our program works from content on our website, seminars and private consultations.
We realize that because of the complexity and challenges involving monitoring and mitigation efforts that it would be misleading to promote that we can guarantee success 100% in our efforts. Our open and honest approach enables us to use the best techniques available and to be open to new and innovative ideas in the campaign against oak wilt.
We are proud of our own proprietary techniques that are showing promising results as we continue our research and development efforts combined with our proactive monitoring techniques I believe that we are on a cutting edge effort in the campaign against oak wilt…
Early Detection and Ongoing Monitoring are Key
Early detection and ongoing monitoring are key to managing oak wilt. With early detection of oak wilt before it has reached a developed stage in developed areas, there are more mitigation options that will increase the percentages of having successful mitigation efforts.
Tribemania Tree Services has developed an Oak Wilt Monitoring Membership geared toward the early detection of oak wilt through layers of techniques involving monitoring existing hot spots, understanding spread patterns and looking for potential new hot spots. Our monitoring efforts generate maps, reports, data and other information that you as a property owner will have access to that puts your community ahead of the curve of oak wilt spreading undetected in your neighborhood. As a member, you will also have access to a private Facebook group that allows conversations to take place with neighbors and other members that want to be part of the solution, along with additional useful information on oak wilt and keeping trees healthy.
Tribemania Tree Services include: