Webinar focuses on sudden oak death

An hour-long webinar on Tuesday morning will update the battle against sudden oak death, which has infected more than 105,000 acres in Sonoma County.

Forest pathologists from California, Oregon and the United Kingdom will discuss the challenges of containing the tree-killing pathogen during the online seminar from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

For information on connecting to the webinar go to http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/news-and-events/visualizing-sudden-oak-death.

A Google+Hangout from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday will feature a panel of experts answering audience-generated questions about sudden oak death.

Both events are part of an online conference running through Feb. 21, presented by the California Oak Mortality Task Force and the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Sudden oak death, discovered in Marin County in 1995, has killed about 257,000 tanoak and oak trees in 14 counties from Monterey to Humboldt.