Beech Bark Disease

A brief overview of Beech Bark Disease. What causes it; the visual symptoms and how it affects the trees.
This video mainly covers the visual characters of the disease.
However impacts of the loss of Beech trees include food availability for
wildlife including bear, deer, squirrels and a variety of birds. Loss of Beech trees within a forest significantly decreases habitat for many animal species.
Music:
"Prelude #6" - Chris Zabriskie
"Vanity Reprise" by Text Me Records/Leviathe
"Somber" by Audionautix
"Hard times come again no more" - The Westerlies

[@codyheisinger2190]

Good presentation.

[@hervedelnorte7928]

Thanks very much. A rather depressing topic.

[@gabrielle1962]

Thanks for the video! I am spending 6 weeks in Vermont and have noticed this everywhere. So sad and disturbing :-(

[@hervedelnorte7928]

Thanks very much Gabrielle, Yes this is very sad. I’ve always loved the look of beech with their smooth bark . I guess we have to hope that our beech will develop some form of resistance to the disease. At the very least, hopefully the trees will still get to an age to seed and replace themselves until such time as they can resist the disease. Sort of like Dutch Elm where most large trees are gone but younger ones still hang on in the landscape. Hope you otherwise enjoy your time in Vermont!

[@gabrielle1962]

@@hervedelnorte7928 Yes! Vermont is covered in Beech Saplings. I did not know until now that Beech Saplings do not get infected until they are older. There’s still some hope! And yes, thank you I am enjoying Vermont very much especially since in this past week most of the trees have sprung new leaves.

[@hervedelnorte7928]

@@gabrielle1962 I’ve only been through Vermont briefly a few times so couldn’t remember the amount of Beech but probably similar to our forests here. Nice to hear there are still lots of younger trees. I’m not sure when they get most susceptible to the disease. There are quite a few younger trees (saplings) here that look good but most of the older ones are affected. I suspect they will be replaced by sugar or red maple, hemlock or any of the trees that exist in the surrounding forest matrix. Yes it is certainly nice the see the trees flushing out in new leaves. And the spring migrants are filling the woods with song..,

[@robertkraemer571]

Great video. I have been observing this over the past few years myself and you've hit it on the head. I cloned a few different lions mane i found growing on these beech and am using them to innoculate the dying trees in a hope to at least get some food and medicine out of them. Also, im trying to get mast producing species like hickory, oak and locust to grow in the areas that will open up with light due to the beech inevitably falling down. Also, always good to collect seeds from beech you find without the disease. These things all make me feel better, and inevitably feel like being part of natural succcession instead of a bystander.

[@hervedelnorte7928]

Good for you Robert! I agree that it’s nice to try to help instead of just watching. Seems that all our beech are infected though at somewhat various stages. I think they are all on the way out though. I know other trees will gradually fill in the spaces but I too was wondering whether I could assist there. Ideally like to get something faster growing but not many hardwoods like that. If left alone, I suspect Aspen, Birch, sugar maple, Red Maple, Hop Hornbeam and Hemlock to fill in. Unfortunately the few butternuts we have are also dying due to butternut canker.😭

[@coldspring624]

very sad....since childhood the Beech has always been pleasing to me.

[@hervedelnorte7928]

Yes, always been a favorite of mine too.

[@jjc8603]

This is sad. The time for mine has come. Beautiful ornamental front yard Beech tree planted 50 yrs ago. Limb landed next to house, others hang way above two homes. I feel guilty but there is no fault.

[@hervedelnorte7928]

Sorry to hear that you’re facing the same issue. They are such beautiful trees when healthy.

[@charliedroves5610]

If you think BBD is bad, Wait until beech leaf disease comes your way. 2 years in since the first sighting on one stem and our forest is nearly obliterated. BBD prevented any beech reaching maturity, but left most the midstory untouched. So beech remained important for nesting birds. Each spring the forest would become aglow with its neon-green leaves. This year 90 percent of the leaves are dark and shriveled. Now, Beech is going the way of the chestnut, ash, elm, walnut, and hemlock… We don’t have much left. The eastern deciduous forest is finished. We’re just waiting for what’s next from across the ocean

[@hervedelnorte7928]

I don’t want to even think about that. Geessshhh! Hopefully some individuals will develop resistance to this. I wonder how the European Beech deals with it? Amazing how you hardly hear any news about this stuff when it really affects our entire landscape.

[@bobnancymiller4931]

My wood lot has a lot of beech trees, and they have recently been infected with this disease. Os there anything I can do ? I notice that the largest ones are rotting at the bases now

[@hervedelnorte7928]

Hello and sorry to hear that your woodlot is also affected. I’m not aware of anything that you can do. In time the Beech will be replaced by other species but for a while there will be lots of trees dying, falling and rotting. Hopefully, some day the disease will run its course or the trees will build resistance but no guarantees of that. Our woods is going to have lots of canopy gaps as the trees fall so it’s going to seem a lot brighter in many areas. Now I’m concerned about our hemlock as quite a few of those are dying and it may be another wonderful disease. Good luck!

[@bobnancymiller4931]

@@hervedelnorte7928 Thank you for the response. I guess I'll drop some before they get too bad to use for anything.