Join the Sudden Oak Death blitz on Saturday

The Sonoma County Master Gardeners plan to blitz the county on Saturday, May 30, to spread the word about Sudden Oak Death.

The army of trained lay-horticulturists will hold informational workshops from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Graton Community Club, located at the corner of Main and North Edison streets in Graton, the Spring Lake Park Environmental Discovery Center, 339 Violetti Road in Santa Rosa and at the Cloverdale Historical Society, 215 N, Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale.

Workshop goers will:

• Learn how sudden oak death (SOD) moves and spreads in the forest

• Learn to recognize SOD symptoms on several host plants

• Collect symptomatic leaves to be diagnosed in the U.C. Berkeley forest pathology laboratory

• See results on Google Earth

For the past few years people in California have been participating in the 'Sudden oak death blitz', going out into the forests, their own backyards, and parks to look at the health of the trees and look for symptoms of Phytophthora ramorum, the pathogen that causes SOD. This drought year is a good year to discover California bay laurel trees that harbor the disease during dry times. Bay laurel are 'super-carriers', trees able to harbor the SOD pathogen during dry times when other bay trees cannot. Identifying infected trees create a chance to try to manage the disease.

To register for a workshop visit ucanr.edu/sodblitz2015.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204. On Twitter @megmcconahey.