NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTIC Radio)—At the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES), scientists are researching Beech Leaf Disease (BLD) that is now widespread across southern Connecticut in order to learn how to contain it.
CAES scientists confirmed Thursday that BLD is now widespread and prevalent on American beech trees throughout Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex and New London Counties.
With a few scattered reports from Litchfield, Tolland and Windham counties, scientists note that the disease seems to be spreading, though there are no confirmed observations in Hartford County.
The spread is worrisome, Associate Scientist and Forest Pathologist Dr. Robert Marra with CAES said, because affected beech trees will most likely not survive and the beech tree plays an important role in the forest ecosystem.
The beech tree offers food for wildlife, nutrients for the forest floor and shade from its canopy, he said. The shade from the full canopy, he explained, suppresses the growth of invasive species.
"With the loss of these canopies and more light hitting the forest floor, that is promoting the further growth and establishment of these invasives," he said.
Though the disease was first discovered in 2012 in Ohio, BLD has spread out to Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Ontario, Canada. Also, the symptoms that have been detected this year are severe, CAES scientists said.
Those symptoms include leaf vein darkening, aborted leaf enlargement, foliage cupping, yellowing or browning, branch and tip dieback, and premature leaf dropping in some cases.
Many people with beech trees on their property have voiced their concern, Marra said, and are looking for viable control options. However, Marra warns them that the process in researching those options is a long and difficult one.
Marra is working alongside scientists from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Canada to learn more about the foliar nematode: a tiny wormlike organism which causes BLD on American, European, and Oriental beech.
"These are projects that are slowly underway. We're somewhat limited not just by funding--that's an important part--but also by the reality that it's a tree, that trees don't grow in annual cycles. They grow in decades," he said.
Currently, the goal is to better understand the development and transmission of the disease in order to develop methods to control it, Marra said.
However, Marra expressed that he understands the impatience of property owners who are unsure of what to do about their affected beech trees. He recommends contacting an arborist for further assistance.