Earthwise Aware president Claire O’Neill points out some beech leaves that have a small amount of beech leaf disease at the Middlesex Fells in Winchester.
Infected leaves can develop dark patches or stripes, and often will curl up. The infection causes the tree's leaves to fall off and can eventually starve the tree, which can die within a few years.In areas “where we first identified the disease, we're seeing a significant amount of decline and occasional occurrences of tree death,” said Keleher. The most affected areas are Plymouth and Bristol counties, where the disease was first identified, and Cape Cod.
Researchers at the Holden Arboretum in Ohio are studying these seemingly resistant trees in hopes that they could breed them and use them in reforestation. But it’s too early to say if these trees are actually resistant. And this is where volunteers come in. In some cases, citizen observations have alerted state foresters to new occurrences of the disease.
“We can really alert very early when there is an issue,” said Claire O’Neill, director of the nonprofit’s biodiversity and climate participatory science program. She said that because they look at the ecosystem as a whole, they can spot what is unusual.and other citizen science reporting tools. Those can serve as a starting point for the state’s Forest Health Program to monitor the spread of the disease.