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A tiny beetle is responsible for the death of thousands of trees at Hunting Island State Park and elsewhere along the coast, experts say.
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Nearly all of the island's redbay trees have been killed since an Asian beetle, believed to cause the fungus "laurel wilt," first appeared in late 2005, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service researchers report. Redbays are one of a few species of native coastal trees that include the more well-known live oaks.
More than 2,000 trees have been removed in three years on Hunting Island because they were considered a safety hazard and source for further infection, according to Stephen Fraedrich, a researcher studying the infestation.
The infected redbays resemble trees suffering during droughts. The redbays on Hunting Island have lost most of their leaves and the intact leaves are brown, said Friends of Hunting Island president Bonnie Wright. Friends of Hunting Island is a group of volunteers who work on beautification and preservation projects.
"It's just devastating to see what this beetle has done," Wright said.
Redbay ambrosia beetles leave behind the laurel wilt fungus, which ultimately kills the redbays. Because the beetle isn't native to the coast, there are no natural predators to hinder its spread, according to the Forest Service reports.
"There were a lot of older trees, really stately trees. (The landscape) has totally changed," Fraedrich said.
But the infestation isn't limited to Hunting Island. Beaufort County is completely infested.
"Very few of the thousands of trees are still alive and the remaining ones are probably in jeopardy," said Donald Duerr, the Southern forest health protection director for the USDA Forest Service.
Laurel wilt has crept across the coastal Southeast in less than a decade. The infestation spread from shipping materials in Port Wentworth, Ga. beginning in 2002 to coastal areas in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The only strategy is to contain laurel wilt by asking people to leave dead redbays where they fall and not move them to landfills, said Laurie Reid, a forest health specialist at the South Carolina Forestry Commission.
Yet the death of thousands of trees fails to stir up a lot of attention because redbays aren't money makers.
"It's under everyone's radar," Fraedrich said. "I think if it was live oaks or pines dying we'd hear a lot more. You know, when this thing started everyone assumed it was drought."
Redbays are considered minor economic trees, used for specialty landscaping, furniture and boat trim. As a result, the disease hasn't been studied, and little is know about the effect the trees' absence will have on the coast.
Fraedrich said answers to how the situation impacts the environment and economy will only come after the trees are gone.
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