Another tree disease is in the area.

Bob Heyd, a forest pest manager for the DNR, says the disease has been detected in more than forty counties and the state doesn’t really know how much of the forest is affected. He says oak wilt can be especially devastating in cottage communities where people may do a lot of pruning or cutting down trees in the early summer.

“Where you’ve got a pretty dense canopy of oak trees that produce a lot of values. Not just wildlife but aesthetic values, shade,” he says. “And they bring oak wilt in and they don’t know what’s going on and they start cutting trees out. And if we don’t pick up on this I’ve seen landscapes along lakes just cleared of their oak.”    IPR