Mold-Help.org - The world's largest TOXIC MOLD website
  • Mold Basics
    • Mold Overview
    • Mold Symptoms
    • Mold Types & Images
    • Fungal Infections
  • Resources and Tools
    • Home Care
    • Health & Diet
    • Tips for Parents
    • Coping with Loss
    • Private Research
    • Legal Suggestions
    • Mold in the Bible
  • Mold News
    • Current Headlines
    • “Sick Buildings”
    • The Environment
    • Construction Industry
    • Govt. & Politics
    • The Workplace
    • Landlords & Tenants
    • Insurance Companies
    • Schools & Institutions
    • Strange Fungal Tales
    • Personal Mold Stories
    • Additional Articles
  • Agencies & Experts
  • About Mold-Help
    • Mold-Help News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Hazelnut Industry Falls Victim to Deadly Fungus

March 11, 2005/in Additional Articles /by Carolyn Willbanks

Springfield, OR – Authorities have discovered yet another deadly fungus threatening crops.  This time it is on the branches of the nation’s oldest commercial hazelnut orchard in Oregon. The Eastern filbert blight has in the past decimated Oregon’s hazelnut industry and as recently as last year led to a quarantine of affected orchards.  As part of an aggressive campaign to stamp out the blight, officials will spray the 80-acre Dorris Ranch as early as next week, home of the oldest commercial hazelnut orchard in the nation.

Located just south of Springfield, the trees at the Dorris Ranch orchard date to 1903, and more than half of all commercial filbert trees in the United States originate from the ranch’s nursery stock.

Officials have been scouring trees all over the region for signs of Eastern filbert blight, which infiltrated Lane County orchards about a decade ago.  At Dorris Ranch last August, orchard manager Garry Rodakowski found little black pustules on a single branch of a single tree ? evidence that the blight had landed.  Rodakowski cut and removed the branch and flagged the tree for close observation.

But with more than 9,200 trees on the ranch, keeping track of where the blight pops up next is difficult, if not impossible and agricultural officials decided to spray in order to not leave anything to chance. “Trying to find something that’s smaller than the head of a pencil up high in the tree is real difficult,” Rodakowski said.  The district is spending $10,000 a year to spray a fungicide that coats the limbs and emerging buds, acting like a prophylactic against blight spores that travel miles in the wind, especially in wet weather.   A rainy spring, as some have forecast, is expected to accelerate the spread of the blight.  Agriculture officials have urged property owners to cut and burn diseased trees, and some have complied. Others have ignored the warnings, allowing the disease to fester and spread to commercial orchards.

At Dorris Ranch, officials say the regimen of scouting for pustules, pruning infected wood and spraying will now be a permanent chore. “It’s here and it’s never going to be eradicated,” Rodakowski said.

The disease originated in the Eastern states but was found in the Northwest in the 1960s, obliterating the filbert industry in some Oregon counties.  The fungus emerges as rows of small, black cankers on limbs, eventually girdling infected branches and killing the leaves. It can result in an unproductive orchard in three to seven years and kill the trees in five to 12 years.

Orchards from Salem to Vancouver, Wash., have been hardest hit.  The state Department of Agriculture tried to keep filbert blight from reaching the southern Willamette Valley by barring the sale of filbert nursery stock for ornamental, landscape, reforestation and land reclamation purposes.  The agency lifted the quarantine in late 2003, declaring it had failed. Ross Penhallegon, a horticulturist with the Lane County Extension Service, believes that was a mistake.  “With good monitoring, scouting and pruning, we can weather this,” Penhallegon said. “We’re way, way farther ahead than the north valley.”  Known outbreaks of the blight in Lane, Linn and Benton counties grew from eight in late 2003 to 20 in January. That includes 15 commercial orchards.  If the area can slow the spread, commercial growers will have time to replace vulnerable trees with disease-resistant varieties being cultivated by Oregon State University, Penhallegon said.

Many Oregon residents have been concerned as signs of a fungus problem are becoming more apparent.  It is very noticeable while driving through the countryside, it is very evident that even the barns are covered with an unknown yellow fungus.  A sulphur-type smell is obvious even in the most remote areas and many people wonder what is going on as last year the state’s plum and apricot crops produced fungal-covered fruit.  Oregon is very dependent on their fruit crops and in light of all of the documented fungal illnesses, prevalent mold problems, and crops destroyed by fungus, many Oregonians are worried more about what is not being said about this obvious problem.

Carolyn Willbanks
Author: Carolyn Willbanks

Tags: fungus, toxic mold, Oregon, crops
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://www.mold-help.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/moldhelp-654x300.png 0 0 Carolyn Willbanks https://www.mold-help.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/moldhelp-654x300.png Carolyn Willbanks2005-03-11 14:28:112019-02-23 00:23:40Hazelnut Industry Falls Victim to Deadly Fungus
You might also like
Mold-Help logo California tenant guide
Mold-Help logo Toxic Mold Blamed for Illness
Mold-Help logo Statement From Peter Schall, senior vice president and managing director regarding Kalia tower
Sick child laying in bed covered with a blanket and holding a tissue What Parents Need to Know About Mold
Mold-Help logo Tenants air grievances, encouraged to organize
fruit fly Is This Fungus Using a Virus to Control an Animal's Mind?

Mold News

  • Current Headlines
  • "Sick Buildings"
  • The Environment
  • Construction Industry
  • Govt. & Politics
  • The Workplace
  • Landlords & Tenants
  • Insurance Companies
  • Schools & Institutions
  • Personal Mold Stories
  • Strange Fungal Tales
  • Additional Articles

Latest Posts

  • Michigan Family Finds Toxic Mold Inside Home
  • California Winter Storms: Water Damage and Mold Exposure Concerns in California
  • Office and Commercial Buildings at Risk for Mold after COVID-19 Closings
  • COVID-19 Symptoms May Include Loss of Taste and Smell
  • New Mold Detox Information on the Horizon
  • COVID-19 Courses of Action
  • Stachybotrys
  • Simple and Easy Ways to Prevent the Coronavirus
  • Your Air Conditioning Unit Helps Eliminate Mold
  • Construction Workers Are Learning to Control Dust and Debris

Search Our Site:

Need Help with Mold?

Are you being affected by mold or other mycotoxins in your environment? Our team and community has over 15 years experience and can provide guidance. You can reach us by submitting your contact or through our Facebook page.

Have a Story to Share?

We're looking for stories and input to expand our database and to add to the personal experiences we've received from the thousands of victims over the last 15. If mold has impacted your life, please take the time to share your story. Your information is confidential and will only be shared with your permission.

Seeking Mold Experts

Are you an expert in the treatment of mold-affected health illnesses, or a provider of services to victims of mycotoxin exposure? Submit your information for listing consideration in our Agencies & Experts resource database.

Additional Resources

  • Contact Us
  • Sitemap
  • Glossary of Terms
  • Survivor Resources
  • General Inquiries
  • Legal Disclaimer

© Copyright - Mold-Help Organization
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Mold Basics
  • Resources and Tools
  • Agencies & Experts
  • Mold News
  • About Mold-Help
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Accept settingsHide notification only