San Diego County Oak Trees Threatened

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 2, 2008 at 11:14 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

There's a new pest attacking oak trees in San Diego County. Officials are concerned because the insect has infested up to 70-percent of the oak trees in Alpine and Julian. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has d

There's a new pest attacking oak trees in San Diego County. Officials are concerned because the insect has infested up to 70-percent of the oak trees in Alpine and Julian. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

In the last seven years, oaks have been dying or declining in eastern San Diego County and the Cleveland National Forest.

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Forest Service scientists thought the major killer was drought.

But now they've discovered a wood-boring beetle that's new to California - and that beetle has an appetite.

Brian Harris with the Cleveland National Forest says dead oak trees do not resprout.

Harris: If we've got a lot of dead oak trees out there, we're really adding to the fuel accumulation out in the forest too. We don't need additional fuels out in the forest there's enough out there. And we all know how wildfires take place here in San Diego County.

He says the beetle has killed large numbers of Coast live oak and California black oak in the east county mountains.

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Harris says the beetle may have been transported here or has expanded its range.

He says forest service officials are working on plans to eliminate the beetle.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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