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LCSC to remove three trees because of disease
Lewis-Clark State College will remove three trees because of disease during the Christmas holiday break, including the large black walnut tree in the backyard of the President's House.
The black walnut tree was diagnosed with Thousand Canker Disease, which was recently discovered and has been killing hundreds of black walnut trees throughout the West. The disease is caused by a fungus hitchhiking on a tiny native bark beetle.
According to Lynn Kimsey, chair of the University of California-Davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, the fungus was just discovered last year. He said the tiny walnut twig beetle does relatively small damage to black walnut trees, but the fungus they carry is so aggressive, it can kill a tree in 1-3 years. The disease was thought to only be in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Mexico, but in the last few years, it was been discovered in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Oregon.
The black walnut tree is the largest tree at the President's House, but tree experts in the area said the tree can't be saved. After strong winds during the past year have knocked down several large branches and trees on the LCSC campus, a decision was made to take out the tree for safety reasons during the Christmas holiday.
LCSC officials also announced two other trees, an Elm and a Black Locust, also are diseased and will come down as well. The two trees are located next to the parking lot on the east side of Reid-Centennial Hall, near 6th Avenue.
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