By Norma Kline (OSU Extension Forester for Coos and Curry Counties) and Dan Stark (OSU Extension Forester for Clatsop, Lincoln and Tillamook Counties)
One of the great things about working in forestry and natural resources extension education is meeting community members who are passionate about growing and caring for their woodlands. Woodland owners are often motivated to learn and help out with issues that extend far beyond their own woodland or community boundaries. Recently, Dan and Norma (along with Marianne Elliott a plant pathologist at Washington State University extension) met a Port Orford community member, Quinn Allen, who is committed to helping get the word out about Sudden Oak Death. Quinn attended a live webinar about the risks of Phytophthora introductions in native ecosystems hosted by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Quinn engaged in a discussion at the end of the webinar that spanned an audience of experts, learners, restoration groups and practitioners all trying to strengthen networks and address risk prevention strategies across a wide geographic area.
Quinn’s connections to the forests and natural resources surrounding her home town of Port Orford, Oregon run deep. Her family connections to the logging and fishing industry highlighted the importance of sustaining the natural resources around her. Quinn wants future generations to experience the forests as she has.
Unfortunately, an invasive pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, threatens the health of her beloved forests. Phytophthora ramorum is the introduced pathogen that causes Sudden Oak Death killing hundreds and thousands of tanoaks in Oregon and California, the pathogen also causes foliar blights on many native shrub species including rhododendron and evergreen huckleberry. For community members in Port Orford, Sudden Oak Death was a somewhat distant threat, the closest infestation was 20 miles to the south. Then, in the spring of 2021, a different lineage of the pathogen was discovered in Port Orford. This lineage, named NA2, had never before been found in the wildlands of North America.
It’s not surprising that Quinn decided to take action on this invasive threat. Quinn loves to help out with natural resource education and is now the social media chairperson for the local chapter of Oregon Women in Timber. Quinn has recently completed a certificate in Forest Technologies at Southwestern Oregon Community College. When prompted to explain how she decided to study forestry, Quinn responded that she had searched through the class catalogue looking for ideas for an educational path that would lead to a fulfilling career. She saw the listings for the forestry courses and realized why not study and work in a field that she knows she already loves?
Quinn completed the coursework for a certificate which quickly led to a position as an invasive weed technician with the Coquille Watershed Association. Giving her a new appreciation for the damage caused by invasive species in southern Oregon.
As one opportunity led to another, Quinn attended the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s live webinar on the risks of Phytophthora introductions in native ecosystems. This webinar was part of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s Treeline webinar series which covered topics of assisted migration and climate change. The group of us (Dan, Marianne, and Norma) presented work from an upcoming OSU extension publication, Preventing Phytophthora infestations in restoration plant nurseries, a key to protecting wildland plant communties1 (in press at this writing). We covered the importance of preventing introduced pathogens and discussed Phytophthora introductions that have taken off in the wildlands including Phytophthora ramorum, the introduced pathogen that causes Sudden Oak Death; Phytophthora lateralis, the introduced pathogen that causes Port-Orford-cedar root rot that has killed hundreds of thousands of Port-Orford-cedar in Oregon and the inadvertent introductions of additional Phytophthora species in California.
The conversations at the end of the webinar sparked an idea for collaborating on a prevention message. Quinn, working with Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s Hannah Buehler, dove into Sudden Oak Death information, drafted a concept, reviewed it with subject matter experts and finished up an infographic design that could be shared in social media and printed.
What a great project! Quinn produced a really great infographic while increasing her network of natural resource professionals.
Preventing Phytophthora infestations in restoration plant nurseries, a key to protecting wildland plant communities, OSU Extension publication (in press). Kline, N.1, Elliott, M.2, Parke, J.3, Stark, D.1, Shaw, D.4, Christiansen, A.1
1Oregon State University, Forestry and Natural Resource Extension; 2Washington State University, Puyallup Research and Extension Center; 3Oregon State University, Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences, Dept. of Botany and Plant Pathology; 4Oregon State University, Dept. of Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management, Forestry and Natural Resources Extension.
