Zoom in to Monterey County on the new SODmap app, and you'll see a peppering of white numbers in Carmel Valley and Big Sur.
The numbers show how many trees were sampled for sudden oak death (SOD) in the latest SOD blitz, an annual ritual in which citizen scientists help track the contagious tree disease (carried by the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum).
The 2014 blitz findings: SOD is still here, big time, despite the drought.
Five hundred volunteers organized by UC Berkeley researchers collected more than 2,000 samples and inspected more than 10,000 trees from the San Francisco Bay Area to Big Sur, according to the press release.
Some good news: SOD numbers are down, thanks to the drought, in warm oak woodlands where the disease is fairly new. That includes Carmel Valley Village.
But the pathogen is still rampant in nearby areas with cooler conditions. Researchers discovered SOD-positive oaks on the Monterey Peninsula this year.
Another troubling discovery: A redwood in San Francisco's Presidio tested positive. Redwoods aren't hurt by SOD, but their needles incubate the spores that spread the disease. Oaks, by contrast, don't spread the pathogen, but can die from it.
The SODmap app aims to raise awareness of SOD risk, so people can take preventative measures such as treatments and select tree removal where the disease threatens to spread.
An informational meeting happens in Carmel Valley Saturday, Oct. 18, 10am in the Garland Ranch Regional Park Natural History Museum. For info, email Kerri Frangioso: kfrangioso@ucdavis.edu.