Common Western Forest Pathogens

[Tillaway]

Dwarf Mistletoe.

Does not kill the tree but effects growth and log quality.

[Tillaway]

Gall Rust in Ponderosa Pine.

[Tom]

Is this the rust that bothers pines in your area?  We are plagued with Fusiform Rust.
http://www.pfc.forestry.ca/diseases/CTD/Group/Rust/rust8_e.html

I found this link on Dwarf Mistletoe easily.  It surprised me to find mistletoe on pine.  We aren't used to that in the Southeast.  Mistletoe down here is a hardwood parasite. When school kids are looking for it at Christmas, they look in oaks (water oak and laurel oak mainly) and Black gums.  The sport is to shoot it out of the tree with a 22.  Good, Harmless fun for kids and it teaches them firearm usage if accompanied by an adult.  Of Course shooting in the air requires that it be done in uninhabited places and with shorts.  Some use Shotguns, which is safer but may cause more tree damage.

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/tasb/legsregs/fpc/fpcguide/dwarf/chap1.htm#ddm

[Tillaway]

Western Gall Rust is not often in Ponderosa Pine.  It is usually in the Lodge Pole Pine.

Blister Rust is the most destructive.  I thought I took a picture of some, but I found out I did'nt after I developed the roll.  The area I was working in had blister rust throughout the Sugar Pine stands.  There was allot of mortality.

Dwarf Mistletoe effects almost all Softwoods.  This picture is of some of the first I have seen in Sugar Pine.  It seems to like Douglas Fir, all true Firs, Western Larch, Incense Cedar, Ponderosa Pine and Western hemlock.

We also get the mistletoe you are reffering to in our Oaks as well.