A tree illness called thousand cankers disease is attacking East Tennessee walnut trees and has spurred the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to quarantine walnut material and movement in the state.
The disease, first found in East Tennessee in Knox County, now has been found in Anderson, Blount and Union counties, resulting in emergency walnut quarantines in 10 surrounding counties including Loudon, Monroe and Roane.
“It’s a brand-new disease,” said Gene Hyde, city forester for Chattanooga. “We don’t know much about it.”
TO STOP THE SPREAD* Don’t transport firewood, even within Tennessee. Don’t bring firewood along for camping trips. Buy the wood you need from a local source. Don’t bring wood home with you.* Don’t buy or move firewood from outside the state. If someone comes to your door selling firewood, ask them about the source.* Watch for signs of infestation in your walnut trees. If you suspect your tree could be infested with thousand cankers disease, visit www.TN.gov/agriculture/tcd for an online symptoms checklist and report form or call the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Regulatory Services Division at 1-800-628-2631.
The concern about the fungal disease, carried by a tiny tree bug, could join the ranks of other locally invasive tree killers such as the emerald ash borer and the hemlock woolly adelgid, he said.
Walnut trees are important because of their nut crop and their highly desired wood, and Tennessee has an estimated 26 million walnut trees, according to Casey Mahoney, a spokeswoman for the state agriculture department.
But so far, cures have proven elusive for thousand cankers disease, which already has devastated many walnut trees in the western United States.
Branches and tree trunk tissue are killed by multiple infections of the fungus, with the small walnut twig beetles carrying the fungus from one area to the next. The trees die within two to three years after initial symptoms are detected, state officials said.
For now, rapid detection and removal of infected trees remains the primary means of managing thousand cankers disease.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry estimates that 1.38 million black walnut trees in the state’s urban areas alone potentially are at risk from the disease, Mahoney said.
The state’s walnut trees are valued as high as $1.47 billion, she said.
Nancy Stewart, an executive with Cross Cabinets in Soddy-Daisy, said her company doesn’t use walnut for cabinets often because it is expensive.
“It probably will just become more expensive now, with supply and demand. It could almost make cabinets from walnut unobtainable for most people,” she said.
Janet Earnhardt, with Lazy-Boy Inc. in Dayton, Tenn., said the largest furniture company in the area also is unlikely to be affected.
“We do not use any walnut in our furniture,” she said.
Contact Pam Sohn at psohn@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6346.