SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — An invasive disease is threatening New Jersey’s beech tree population.
Beech leaf disease was first discovered in Ohio. Little is known about it, aside from the fact that it destroys the trees over time. The disease has expanded from just two counties in New Jersey in 2020, Essex and Bergen, to 12 counties now, including Burlington and Mercer.
“The primary visual symptom is this dark banding of the leaf tissue that’s in between the leaf veins,” said Rosa Yoo, forest health expert for the New Jersey Forest Service.
The tree species provides life-sustaining nutrients for many animals, from birds to bears, she said. “It’s a very important species to our ecosystem and for wildlife. We obviously don’t want to lose that as part of our environment.”
This is a problem officials in Pennsylvania have identified as well.
“The threat of losing yet another native tree species from our forests within a short period of time can exacerbate an already strained system that struggles with other stressors, such as invasive plants, deer herbivory, drought, flooding and climate change,” said John Sacco of the Forest Service.
In South Jersey, beech trees primarily grow on the western side of the state. Forest Service officials encourage people in that area to look at the trees on their property and be on the lookout for that distinctive discoloration.
“We would love to receive reports of those areas so we can kind of take a look and assess and monitor those areas,” Yoo said.
So far, there is no known cure for beech leaf disease.