Letter from the state coordinator

Hello from the State Coordinator’s Office,

Though the plants are still dormant outside, our office is anything but! We are hard at work preparing for Master Gardener College 2020, Giving Day, the International Master Gardener Conference (IMGC) in 2021, and more!

Master Gardener College 2020 is back in Blacksburg this year from June 25 -28. We have new and exciting tours and workshops planned and have secured some great keynotes and concurrent session speakers. The advanced training this year is Land Care Steward Training. Keep an eye out for registration opening in mid to late April. We look forward to seeing folks on campus in June!

Another upcoming endeavor from our office is our engagement with Giving Day, a 24-hour giving campaign that runs from noon on March 18 to noon on March 19. We have two generous donors who have added matching challenges to our Giving Day campaign, one for $1,000 and the second for $2,000. All donations will go directly toward our unrestricted operating funds – those help fund leadership trainings, resource development, and more! Please consider supporting our Giving Day campaign or sharing information with others!

It truly is an exciting time for our office as we work to plan IMGC 2021. We are not alone in this endeavor, we have a great team of EMG volunteers to help us pull off what will be a unique and transformative week in Norfolk in September 2021. Visit the conference website, internationalmastergardener.com, to see keynote speakers, a preliminary schedule, and additional details about our conference location.

As part of IMGC preparations, we are currently calling for proposals for our 60-minute concurrent sessions and our 120-minute workshops at IMGC. If your unit has hosted a particularly amazing speaker, please forward them our Call for Proposals and help us round out our lineup of dynamic concurrent session speakers! The Call for Proposals can be found on the IMGC website listed above.

Kathleen Reed State Master Gardener Coordinator

Wet weather contributes to decline in Virginia’s oak tree population

Years of stress and predisposing factors, coupled with last year’s unusually wet weather, have resulted in sudden browning and death of some of Virginia’s oaks.

By: Devon Johnson

Adam Downing, a forestry and natural resources agent with Virginia Cooperative Extension, has passed a big, healthy white oak tree on his drive to work. This summer, he noticed as two-thirds of the tree’s foliage turned brown in just a few days, and the tree looked like it was dying. Within a month, the tree had been removed.

“I can’t say I’ve ever seen an otherwise healthy-seeming tree brown out like that,” said Downing. “My experience is consistent with other calls we’ve gotten from around Virginia this year. It’s almost always a white

oak and people report that it suddenly looks dead.”

Is some mysterious new disease or pest killing old, otherwise healthy-seeming oak trees?

Probably not.

According to Downing, while a combination of factors contributes to oak decline, our unusually wet weather through last summer into the spring likely stressed many Virginia oaks and may have caused this year’s

increase in oak mortality.

“Last year’s wet weather is the only thing that seems different,” said Lori Chamberlin, a forest health program manager with the Virginia Department of Forestry. “Oak decline is happening in the background for a lot of trees, and it’s likely been accelerated by the extreme weather we’ve had.”

Predisposing factors, such as poor soil or old tree age, reduce an oak tree’s ability to fight off pests and make it more susceptible to inciting factors, such as frost or defoliating insects that may initiate oak tree decline, according to Chamberlin. An oak tree may be in decline for years or even decades, and contributing factors like secondary insect pests or diseases that ultimately lead to tree death are just the last nail in the coffin.

The biggest routine stress most urban trees face is the urban environment, according to Downing. Urban trees deal with factors like competition from turfgrass, compaction of soil by foot traffic and vehicles, and even

urban heat islands.

Homeowners concerned about their oak trees can promote tree health by practicing basic maintenance, including reducing or preventing compaction of soil around the tree, watering during periods of dry weather, and providing proper mulching. Good practices like these can help extend the life of a tree, even if it’s already in a gradual decline.

“If your oak tree did die this year, don’t be afraid to plant another oak tree!”

Downing recommends that property owners keep vigilant by taking a monthly walk around to look for problems.

“For a lot of tree-health things, if you catch it early, you can help the tree,” he added.

Tree owners also need to remember that oaks have a finite lifespan.

“If your oak tree did die this year, don’t be afraid to plant another oak tree!” said Downing. “Don’t be afraid of oaks because they’re slow growing. They have so much value in the food chain and they’re great trees.”

If the small size of a newly-planted oak tree deters you, think of it as planting an “oak bush” instead, Downing added.

To learn about planting trees in parking lots or areas with pavement, see this Extension publication.

To learn about planting trees in hot sites such as next to buildings, see this Extension publication.•