Strong as an oak?

Strong as an oak?

Oak was a favorite wood of Frank Lloyd Wright, who started his architectural practice in Oak Park, Illinois.

So Wright would likely be dismayed to hear that the oak population in California now faces a triple threat: drought and pest infestation thanks to climate change, and insufficient funds for forest management. The result is an alarming die-off of trees, oak and pine among them, from fires and disease. One plant pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, exclusively targets oaks; it’s so lethal, it goes by the name Sudden Oak Death syndrome. The official death count is now in the millions. Feeling sad? Time to hug Mia’s beautiful old oak in Target Park.    —Diane Richard, writer, August 31, 2016

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Photos: Gabrielle Lurie for The New York Times

News source: Cynthia H. Craft, “Like Tens of Millions of Matchsticks, California’s Dead Trees Stand Ready to Burn,” The New York Times, August 31, 2016