The Beech Leaf Disease Symptom Tracking Survey
of the Forest Health Project
Published Online to Public: August 27, 2020
Text updated, as noted below: June 11 & 28; July 16, 2021;
January 24; April 20; July 16, 18, & 20; September 30, 2022;
August 13, 2023
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August 13, 2023 Update: The project is still active. BLD is still marching up the east coast, killing trees. It is important to document inland sites, especially those with NO sign of BLD, in order to find out if there is some sort of resistance to the disease by its distance from the coast, or the latitude. YOU REALLY CAN DO THIS! PLEASE DO! |
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September 30, 2022 Update: ================================================================================================ July 16, 2022 Update: July 18, 2022 Update: July 20, 2022 Update: |
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April 20, 2022 Update (Map updated July 20, 2022): |
Here is your opportunity to be in on the ground floor of a new project to track the health of beech trees in the Northeast and to provide data on the spread of the newly emerging Beech Leaf Disease. According to Mark Mikolas's tree book, beech trees are the third most common trees in the Northeast; therefore, this disease could have a major impact on our forests. Although I am primarily targeting New England, this project is valid and data are welcome from anywhere in the US or Canada.
November 2, 2020 Update:
One volunteer asked about what beech tree species are affected by BLD.
Daniel Volk responded that "BLD affects multiple species of beech (genus Fagus) but not all. American beech (Fagus grandifolia),
European beech (Fagus sylvatica; which includes copper, weeping, and tri-color beech), and Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis) are affected by BLD."
This is not your typical entry-level citizen science project and it is not for everyone, but if you have read this far, there is a good chance you’d like to give it a shot!
I am recruiting people to do Forest Health Project surveys not only in the area around Province Lake, but across the region. Many people reading this have their primary homes in other states or like to travel to other states. I am looking for people to do surveys across New England and even up into Canada. Some of you reading this have never even heard of Province Lake, but were directed to this page by social media postings – welcome!
This project web site was initiated when I first received a brief instruction sheet on June 2, 2020, describing the project and how to use the app. A far more useful User Manual was made available in mid-summer. It is required reading, particularly the "General Guidelines for Surveys", on pages 10-12, which tell you how to conduct your survey in the field. The map on page 10 is accurate for 2019, but BLD has already been found further afield in 2020, including in western Rhode Island. Earlier parts of the Manual concentrate on the app itself. The editing feature it mentions for the web site version has not yet been implemented, as of this posting. Some of you will need not much more than that to get going, but there are a few important points I must make, below. Note that with a limited development budget and a limited audience of users, the app still has a number of quirks and deficiencies. I have discovered some of these the hard way, so you can save yourself much frustration by reading all the bullet points below carefully.
- Surveys can be conducted at any time, as long as there are fully opened green leaves on the trees.
- The app has a drop-down menu for "State", but you will probably not find your state listed. You will be "Other". When you get to the box for "County", include your state there, e.g., "Carroll County, NH" or "Kent County, RI".
- You MUST go through the training portions of the app or the web site to study up before you head out to the woods. Otherwise, you will not know what you are looking for. You may also have poor cell reception in the woods, causing frustration and extra mosquito bites if you wait until then to figure out the app. Better to go through it in advance on your desk or laptop computer with a larger screen, so you can see the photos more clearly. A cold beer or hot coffee at your side won't hurt!
- I cannot speak for the phone app, but the web site version of the app has deficiencies in the photo uploading function. Read and heed the instructions in this regard on the BLD Survey page of this web site. At least in the web site version, as of this posting, there is no provision for editing any mistakes you may make. I learned this the hard way. You can see my error-filled first survey report within the app's map if you look for it.
If, like me, you lack a smartphone, all is not lost, but you might be without the following pointers:
- After you register yourself at their website https://treehealthapp.cmparks.net/, it may appear that all you can do is look at maps. It's cool to look at your house in satellite view, but that's not the point!
- Forest Health Project Coordinator Daniel Volk says: "The phone apps are the preferred way to enter data, but you can also enter data online by clicking the 'Maps > Add/Edit Points' button. Click on the map where you want to drop a pin, then select the pin and click 'Add Marker'. Once you select the project, all the questions should pop up similar to the app." Despite the label on the button, note that, as of this posting, there is no provision for editing any mistakes you may make.
- You want to place your pin correctly on the map, but you will find that you must "eyeball" it. It will be REALLY handy if you take your photos with a digital camera that is GPS-equipped, or if you record your location with a separate GPS receiver. However, the web version of the app lacks any provision to use those GPS coordinates to help you place the pin. If you are using a GPS-equipped camera, Daniel Volk has confirmed that those coordinates included in your photo file will NOT be passed through when you upload your photos. Therefore, whatever your circumstances, you should report your GPS coordinates in the Additional Notes section near the end (Question 17 on this web site). If you do not have options for determining GPS coordinates, then just do the best you can – your observations are much more important than the precise location. If you are estimating the location, just say so in the Additional Notes section.
For educational purposes, under a License Agreement with Cleveland Metroparks, I have recreated the Training and Survey pages of the CMP web site and made them into pages on this web site. These pages will make everything easier for you to browse. If you are going to participate in the project without a smartphone, the BLD Survey page will tell you all the questions you will need to answer when you get home from the woods. I recommend that you print out the BLD Survey page, telling your printer to "Shrink To Fit", so that the 3 or so pages on paper do not cut anything off the right side of the page.
I personally found the idea of organizing my thoughts and photos directly online into the app rather daunting, so I created a Word document that I could use as a template to create my reports in advance of submittal. This was especially helpful for preparing my detailed Additional Notes section, which could then be copied and pasted into the app. Using this form also left me with a permanent record of my survey. Using this report form is not required and it is not intended to be directly submitted, but it is a tool I am making available to you HERE, if you would like to use it.
I hope you will consider joining this new citizen science project. You could be the first to detect BLD in your state (though hopefully NOT!). Register directly with the Forest Health Project to do so. While there is no requirement that you contact me about participating, it would be mutually beneficial for you to do so, so that we can share information. It would also let me know if my outreach is having any success. If you let me know the surveys you have completed, I will add them to the table below. I will not post anyone's name or contact info, to protect your privacy, but if you would like to post an affiliation, you may do so. Examples would be if you are on your town's Conservation Commission or are a volunteer for the RINHS. Please email me at province-lake-water@cox.net and include "BLD" somewhere in your subject line. I hope to hear from you!
June 11, 2021 Update:
Daniel told me that USDA Forest Service hosted a BLD Workshop in April that you can access HERE.
You can DOWNLOAD the agenda to identify which presentations may be relevant for you to watch.
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June 28, 2021 Update: 
"Beech leaf disease typically has dark green stripes that are restricted between the veins. However, the stripes can become yellow as the season progresses. It is often easier to diagnose a backlit photo by holding it up to the sun because the striped portion of the leaf that is damaged is thicker than undamaged tissue which prevents light from passing through. Because the damaged tissue is thicker, feeling the texture of the leaf is also a good diagnostic tool. BLD affected tissue will feel significantly thicker than undamaged leaf tissue or a healthy beech leaf. "From what I can assess, this photo does appear to be BLD that has become chlorotic (yellow). Since this would be a new location for BLD in MA, I am including ... MA Department of Conservation & Recreation as they might want to follow up on this location." Mass.gov has published a Pest Alert for BLD. While that Alert page does provide reporting instructions, please note that by reporting through this Forest Health Project, the report will also be made to the state agency, as indicated in the email text above. Also, by submitting a report, you will be providing useful documentation to the state agency, as well as making the survey results available to others in the region outside of the single state agency. Awareness of the spread is important to those others. Please also note the importance of taking photos that are back-lit. Front-lit photos can be a bit ambiguous. |
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July 16, 2021 Update: There is a fundamental disconnect between what you will probably do during a survey and the way the app is structured. If you only have a single beech tree standing alone, say, in your backyard, there is no conflict, as the app is structured to document a single tree. More likely is that you will be surveying a grove of trees or hiking a trail that has beeches along it. You may see hundreds of beeches, potentially thousands if there are lots of sprouts. What to do? In my previous life as an environmental consultant, I learned how to dodge the forms and provide all the information that is REALLY needed. I have updated the table of known completed surveys below. The dates for the 2020 surveys I completed myself are now links to PDFs of the reports I wrote first. Once I was satisfied with those reports, I logged into the CMP web site and filled out the survey form, cutting and pasting as needed. Open up one of those reports and you will see that the Additional Notes section is key. You have free form to say whatever you want. If you hiked a trail, you can give the GPS coordinates of the end points. You can characterize the forest. You can give the GPS coordinates of your photos, which can be of different trees. You can record anything you think is useful. You are a volunteer and no one is going to criticize or fire you for doing it wrong. There is no wrong! Any information you can provide is very useful and will be gratefully accepted! I have looked at many of the reports that other people have submitted to the CMP web site and noticed that not all of the questions are answered in some. Eureka! If there is a question for which you really are not sure of the answer, say, about mites or aphids, just leave it blank! The most important things are the location and the observed symptoms of beech leaf disease, with photos. Next is the observed symptoms of beech bark disease, since BBD can also kill beech trees. The app neglects the survey date, so you should include that in the Additional Notes section (my linked reports from 2020 didn't do that, but this year they will). Try to answer the other questions if you can, but if you can't, don't sweat it - leave the answers blank. YOU CAN DO THIS! |
