Susan J. Frankel

Economic Impacts of Non-Native Forest Insects in the Continental United States

Reliable estimates of the impacts and costs of biological invasions are critical to developing credible management, trade and regulatory policies. Worldwide, forests and urban trees provide important ecosystem services as well as economic and social benefits, but are threatened by non-native insects. More than 450 non-native forest insects are established in the United States but estimates of broad-scale economic impacts associated with these species are largely unavailable. We developed a novel modeling approach that maximizes the use of available data, accounts for multiple sources of uncertainty, and provides cost estimates for three major feeding guilds of non-native forest insects. For each guild, we calculated the economic damages for five cost categories and we estimated the probability of future introductions of damaging pests. We found that costs are largely borne by homeowners and municipal governments. Wood- and phloem-boring insects are anticipated to cause the largest economic impacts by annually inducing nearly

Historical Accumulation of Nonindigenous Forest Pests in the Continental United States

1.7 billion in local government expenditures and approximately

Standardizing the Nomenclature for Clonal Lineages of the Sudden Oak Death Pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum

830 million in lost residential property values. Given observations of new species, there is a 32% chance that another highly destructive borer species will invade the U.S. in the next 10 years. Our damage estimates provide a crucial but previously missing component of cost-benefit analyses to evaluate policies and management options intended to reduce species introductions. The modeling approach we developed is highly flexible and could be similarly employed to estimate damages in other countries or natural resource sectors.

Sudden oak death and Phytophthora ramorum in the USA: a management challenge

Nonindigenous forest insects and pathogens affect a range of ecosystems, industries, and property owners in the United States. Evaluating temporal patterns in the accumulation of these nonindigenous forest pests can inform regulatory and policy decisions. We compiled a comprehensive species list to assess the accumulation rates of nonindigenous forest insects and pathogens established in the United States. More than 450 nonindigenous insects and at least 16 pathogens have colonized forest and urban trees since European settlement. Approximately 2.5 established nonindigenous forest insects per year were detected in the United States between 1860 and 2006. At least 14% of these insects and all 16 pathogens have caused notable damage to trees. Although sap feeders and foliage feeders dominated the comprehensive list, phloem- and wood-boring insects and foliage feeders were often more damaging than expected. Detections of insects that feed on phloem or wood have increased markedly in recent years.

Biodiversity Conservation in the Face of Dramatic Forest Disease: An Integrated Conservation Strategy for Tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) Threatened by Sudden Oak Death

Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of sudden oak death and ramorum blight, is known to exist as three distinct clonal lineages which can only be distinguished by performing molecular marker-based analyses. However, in the recent literature there exists no consensus on naming of these lineages. Here we propose a system for naming clonal lineages of P. ramorum based on a consensus established by the P. ramorum research community. Clonal lineages are named with a two letter identifier for the continent on which they were first found (e.g., NA = North America; EU = Europe) followed by a number indicating order of appearance. Clonal lineages known to date are designated NA1 (mating type: A2; distribution: North America; environment: forest and nurseries), NA2 (A2; North America; nurseries), and EU1 (predominantly A1, rarely A2; Europe and North America; nurseries and gardens). It is expected that novel lineages or new variants within the existing three clonal lineages could in time emerge.

Proceedings of the fourth international workshop on the genetics of host-parasite interactions in forestry: Disease and insect resistance in forest trees

Oaks and tanoaks in California and Oregon coastal forests are being ravaged by sudden oak death. The exotic causal agent, Phytophthora ramorum, is an oomycete in the Straminipile group, a relative of diatoms and algae. P. ramorum also infects many popular horticultural plants (i.e. camellia and rhododendron), causing ramorum blight, with symptoms expressed as leaf spots, twig blight and shoot dieback. P. ramorum has raised important biosecurity issues, which continue to reverberate through the agriculture, forestry and horticulture industries as well as associated government management, regulatory and scientific agencies. The continued spread of this and other new Phytophthora spp. presents significant impetus for adjustments in the management and regulation of forest pathogens and nursery stock.

Proceedings of the Sudden Oak Death Fourth Science Symposium.

Abstract Non-native diseases of dominant tree species have diminished North American forest biodiversity, structure, and ecosystem function over the last 150 years. Since the mid-1990s, coastal California forests have suffered extensive decline of the endemic overstory tree tanoak, Notholithocarpus densiflorus (Hook. & Arn.) Manos, Cannon & S. H. Oh (Fagaceae), following the emergence of the exotic pathogen Phythophthora ramorum and the resulting disease sudden oak death. There are two central challenges to protecting tanoak: 1) the pathogen P. ramorum has multiple pathways of spread and is thus very difficult to eradicate, and 2) the low economic valuation of tanoak obscures the cultural and ecological importance of this species. However, both modeling and field studies have shown that pathogen-centric management and host-centric preventative treatments are effective methods to reduce rates of spread, local pathogen prevalence, and to increase protection of individual trees. These management strategies are not mutually exclusive, but we lack precise understanding of the timing and extent to apply each strategy in order to minimize disease and the subsequent accumulation of fuels, loss of obligate flora and fauna, or destruction of culturally important stands. Recent work identifying heritable disease resistance traits, ameliorative treatments that reduce pathogen populations, and silvicultural treatments that shift stand composition hold promise for increasing the resiliency of tanoak populations. We suggest distinct strategies for pathogen invaded and uninvaded areas, place these in the context of local management goals, and suggest a management strategy and associated research priorities to retain the biodiversity and cultural values associated with tanoak.

Tanoak: History, Ecology and Values

Individual papers are available at http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr240/ The Fourth International Workshop on the Genetics of Host-Parasite Interactions in Forestry: Disease and Insect Resistance in Forest Trees provided a forum for research and management options and successes which have occurred over the last 30 years (the previous workshop was held in 1980 in Wageningen, The Netherlands). Eighty-eight submissions from oral and poster presentations at the 2011 workshop held in Eugene, Oregon provide a worldwide, comprehensive update on many aspects of research and operational programs on genetic resistance to forest insects and diseases. Topics of concern to natural forest systems and intensively managed forests are discussed, including resistance mechanisms, durability of resistance, ecology and evolutionary biology of resistance and tolerance, pathogen evolution, molecular tools, short-term screening assays for resistance and status of several applied forest tree resistance programs.

Climate change and forest diseases

The Sudden Oak Death Fourth Science Symposium provided a forum for current research on sudden oak death, caused by the exotic, quarantine pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum. Ninety submissions describing papers or posters on the following sudden oak death/P. ramorum topics are included: biology, genetics, nursery and wildland management, monitoring, ecology, and diagnostics.

A highly aggregated geographical distribution of forest pest invasions in the USA

To combat sudden oak death (SOD), scientists needed to understand its primary host – tanoak, Notholithocarpus densiflorus (Hook. & Arn.) Manos, Cannon & S. H. Oh (Fagaceae), so research was initiated on its distribution, utilization and natural history. This Madrono Special Issue presents much of what we have learned, over the past 10 years, about this endemic, broadleaf tree, common throughout coastal California and southwest Oregon. By assembling this work, we aim to synthesize new information about this important SOD host; apply the concepts and findings to conservation and management; and share our appreciation for tanoak.