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The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) is advising forest landowners to monitor their sassafras trees after detecting new cases of laurel wilt disease in Robertson and Hamblen Counties. In the last quarter of 2019, the disease was detected in trees in Montgomery, Cheatham, Dickson and Williamson Counties. "These new detections of this invasive disease show a significant geographic jump across the state," State Forester David Arnold said. "This is yet another unfortunate example of an invasive pest impacting our forests. Landowners should take caution to prevent the spread of this disease if detected on their property."

Laurel wilt is a fungal disease caused by an invasive pathogen, Raffaelea lauricola, which can affect a range of plants, including sassafras and spicebush in Tennessee. Choked of water, trees wilt and die within a few weeks or months. Currently, no treatment has been developed that can cure laurel wilt disease or protect trees from infection. The best way to prevent the spread of laurel wilt is to avoid movement of firewood or other untreated timber. Tennesseans are urged to monitor their sassafras trees for browning of leaves, leaf loss, and staining in the inner bark. If you suspect your trees might have laurel wilt disease, contact Forest Health Program Specialist Sam Gildiner at 615-837-5439 or sam.gildiner@tn.gov. TDA Division of Forestry staff will assist in identifying the disease and recommending management actions, if appropriate.

The Alien Forest Pest Explorer (AFPE) is an interactive web tool which provides detailed spatial data describing pest distributions and host inventory estimates for damaging, non-indigenous forest insect and disease pathogens currently established in the U.S. The database is maintained as a joint effort of Purdue University, the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, and the U.S. Forest Service Forest Health Protection.

View the updated regional infestation map for Laurel Wilt Disease (for initial detection in May 2002. Map is updated periodically (USDA,FS - Forest & Grassland Health).

Provides state, county, point and GIS data. Maps can be downloaded and shared.

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Laurel wilt disease has been spreading through the U.S. since 2002 and is fatal to tree species in the laurel family. Forest Service researchers are continuing to monitor the disease, search for treatment methods, and develop a better understanding of how it is affecting sassafras and other susceptible species.

See also: Laurel Wilt Disease Associated with Redbay Ambrosia Beetle for more resources

The Laurel Wilt Public Dashboard story map – a collaboration between the Georgia Forestry Commission, multiple branches of the Forest Service, and other state forestry agencies – shows the annual spread of the disease. The story map shows that new detections occur mostly in the Coastal Plain, not in the Appalachian mountains where sassafras reaches its greatest sizes.

The National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS) is called for in Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 9 (HSPD-9) which was issued in February of 2004. The purpose of the NPDRS is to ensure that the tools, infrastructure, communication networks, and capacity required to mitigate the impact of high consequence plant disease outbreaks are such that a reasonable level of crop production is maintained in the U.S.

These recovery plans are a cooperative effort of university, industry, and government scientists. The plans outline what the scientists know about the disease, indicate the current preparedness, suggest the best IPM approach, and recommend priority research and education needs.
See also: Disease Recovery Plans (~26 plans published, with more in process)