Forest pathologist’s grim outlook for tree diseases

Robert Marra of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station discusssed four tree diseases with a Norfolk audience on Saturday, July 16.
Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
NORFOLK — Robert Marra of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) told an audience that genetic engineering might prove a better strategy than creating hybrids in restoring American chestnuts. Marra, a forest pathologist at CAES, spoke to a group of about 50 people at Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk on Saturday, July 16.
Marra said the genetic chestnut idea is “highly contested” but could prove to be more effective than creating hybrid strains of American chestnut and blight-resistant Asian chestnut. (An example of the hybrid approach exists in a grove in Falls Village.)
Prior to widespread American chestnut blight, Marra said estimates put the percentage of American chestnut trees in hardwood forests in the eastern United States at somewhere between 30% and 50%.
The blight was caused by a parasitic fungus that was accidentally introduced into the U.S. in 1904, from imported Asian chestnut trees, which are resistant to the fungus.
By about 1950, the disease “was as widespread as the tree itself.”
Beech bark disease threatens American beeches and, to some extent, European beeches.
The villain in this case is am exotic scale insect, likely imported on European beech trees in the late 19th century.
The insect eats the bark, creating a white, waxy wooly substance.
The damage to the bark allows a native fungus to get into the tree. Marra said without the bug paving the way, the disease would not exist.
The scale insect was introduced in Nova Scotia around 1890, and Marra said the disease is widespread in the northeast and heading south at least as far as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Beech leaf disease is a more recent development. Marra said it was first identified in 2012 in Ohio, and affects American, European and Oriental beech trees.
The leaves become banded, with darker areas the primary clue that the disease has struck.
Marra said foresters had no immediate answers for the disease, and that by 2019 it had spread into upstate New York, Pennsylvania, the New York City metro area, and Connecticut.
Marra showed photos of affected trees in West Rock Ridge State Park in New Haven and Hamden.
The result, he said, is trees that provide little or no canopy because of their degraded leaves.
“There’s not a lot of photosynthesis going on.”
Marra said the culprit has been identified as a nematode (aka eelworm), a plant parasite. The specific nematode here is litylenchus crenatae mccannii.
“This is confirmed and proven as causal,” Marra said firmly.
Any “wet event” (rain, drizzle, dew, or humidity) will trigger the movement and deleterious work of the nematode.
Marra wound up the grim litany of tree disease with oak wilt, first spotted in Wisconsin in 1944, and now in 21 states.
Marra said the fungus Bretziella fagacaerum grows on the oak trees, with disastrous results. The fungus is spread by oak bark beetles.
“Once it sets in it goes crazy and blocks water transport” within the tree. Marra said the result is often mistaken for effects of drought.
“All oaks are susceptible,” Marra said, red oaks most of all.
Symptoms include rapid leaf discoloration and wilting, starting at the top of the tree and moving down.
A diseased tree can die in as little as three weeks.
Is oak wilt in Connecticut?
“We don’t know,” said Marra. The CAES is collecting samples, and there was one tree in Guilford that received scrutiny.
Marra said New York state, where there is definitely oak wilt, the state has set up quarantine protocols.
But Connecticut does not have any measures in place.
Isolation and prevention measures are expensive, Marra said, showing a slide of a million-dollar piece of equipment, a vibratory plow, in use in Minnesota.
And the machine “probably wouldn’t work here,” Marra said. “Guess why?”
“Rocks!” said the audience.
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LAKEVILLE — Nearly a month after closing the public hearing on the proposed Wake Robin Inn redevelopment, the Planning and Zoning Commission began its deliberations last week over the course of two special meetings devoted solely to the controversial project.
Over four hours of discussion helped the Commission to establish its position at this stage in the process, about a month before its statutory window to render a decision expires on Nov. 13.
By the end of the Oct. 9 meeting, the commission’s five voting members were split in their inclination towards approval or denial, with Secretary Martin Whalen and Regular Member Bob Riva indicating a favorable view, Vice Chair Cathy Shyer and Chair Michael Klemens leaning towards denial, and Regular Member Allen Cockerline expressing reluctance to suggest a vote before further conversation.
“We have more questions that have not been answered,” Klemens said.
“I think we’d all agree to that,” replied Cockerline.
The fundamental nature of those questions is: is the project still too big? And how does the Commission quantify “too big?”
This marked the second time the Commission has sat down to weigh the merits of an expansion proposal for the Inn. The applicant, Aradev LLC, had withdrawn a previous application in December 2024 after four of the five voting members indicated they would likely deny it. Since Aradev resubmitted a revised application this spring in response to feedback from P&Z and Salisbury residents, many neighbors have remained vocal in their continued opposition to the project, both during the public hearing and through community organizing.
Last week several commissioners expressed their gratification with Aradev’s responsiveness to the feedback and the thoroughness of the revised application, though the overall size of the development remained controversial. Cockerline praised the new proposal’s stormwater management plan in particular, which he described as “beyond anything I could’ve imagined.”
He also said it would note a marked improvement to the Inn’s current condition which he characterized as “functionally obsolete.” It should have been renovated 20 years ago,” he said on several occasions over the two meetings.
Klemens said that the application is “much better designed this go around, but still large.”
Shyer took a harder stance, one that echoed the sentiments conveyed in many a neighbor’s testimony during the public hearing. “The bottom line is, this is a big development,” she said. “It’s as big as the last one.” While the new plans have downsized the room count and building footprint from 2024’s application among other alterations, many residents have claimed that the currently proposed expansion is, in terms of impact, nearly identical.
Klemens closed in on a sentence in the town’s zoning regulation 803.3 that addresses impact on neighboring properties in the case of a special permit application as fundamental to the Commission’s deliberation. The clause states that the development may not “cause undue concentration of population or structures,” which Klemens said that, while a tricky thing to define, is the crux of the matter: “I think that’s been the heart of the whole thing. It’s the size; it’s the increase.”
Shyer suggested traffic as a potentially quantifiable metric by which the Commission could determine if the redevelopment is proportionally inappropriate for the location. Before the next meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 7 p.m., the Land Use Office will seek data on how ingress/egress by Inn guests and restaurant goers will affect, by percentage, the number of cars at busy Lakeville intersections.
P&Z’s attorney Charles Andres was asked to seek out case law where “undue concentration” has been used as a basis for special permit denial. He said that the language, having appeared in the first national zoning enabling laws in the 1920s, is antiquated and has been phased out of many regulation books. He agreed that examples of its use in the special permit context will be helpful in pinning down such a vague concept.
The roof of the Grove was damaged by the tree, the event tent was punctured, a chef was injured and the Jubilee Luncheon was canceled Sunday, Oct. 12.
LAKEVILLE — The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News Jubilee Luncheon fundraiser at the Grove Sunday, Oct. 12 was canceled after a very large section of a tree fell on the caterer’s tent at about 10 a.m.
Most of the catering staff heard the tree breaking up and got out of the tent in time, but the chef was hit by the falling limbs and sustained non-critical injuries.
A portion of the Grove’s roof sustained damage and branches came through the tent.
The Lakeville Hose Company responded to the scene. The chef was transported to Sharon Hospital by the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
“While we’re deeply disappointed to cancel our annual fundraising event, our first concern is for our caterer’s chef, who was injured in the incident and is now recovering at home,” said James Clark, Publisher. “We’re grateful there were no more serious injuries, and we deeply appreciate the understanding and support of our honoree, underwriters, and guests.”
The incident occurred during preparation for the event, which would have centered around the presentation of the Estabrook Community Leadership Award to Bunny Williams.
Food that The Marketplace had prepared for the event was donated to People’s Pantry in Great Barrington.
Emergency responders block Amenia Union Road in Sharon Saturday, Oct. 11, while responding to the vehicle crash.
Updated Oct. 13, 9:25 a.m.:
SHARON — Shea Cassidy-Teti, 17, of Salisbury, died Saturday, Oct. 11, in a tragic car crash on Amenia Union Road in Sharon.
Connecticut State Police reported Charles Teti, 62, was driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee northbound on Amenia Union Road when, for an unknown reason, the vehicle crossed the southbound lane and exited the roadway where it struck a tree and home. Airbags deployed.
Teti and front seat passenger Aidan Cassidy, 63, sustained serious injuries. Teti was airlifted to Hartford Hospital and Cassidy was transported by ambulance to Sharon Hospital for treatment.
Shea Cassidy-Teti was in the back seat and sustained fatal injuries. He was pronounced dead on scene.
Cassidy-Teti was a senior at Kent School. He played on the football and tennis teams.
The residence that was struck is located at 35 Amenia Union Road.
The case remains under open investigation. Witnesses are asked to contact Trooper Lukas Gryniuk at Troop B 860-626-1821.
The residence at 35 Amenia Union Road sustained damage to the front of the structure, which can be seen from the street through the trees. Oct. 13.Photo by Ruth Epstein
LAKEVILLE — Rhys V. Bowen, 65, of Foxboro, Massachusetts, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sept. 15, 2025. Rhys was born in Sharon, Connecticut, on April 9, 1960 to Anne H. Bowen and the late John G. Bowen. His brother, David, died in 1979.
Rhys grew up at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, where his father taught English. Attending Hotchkiss, Rhys excelled in academics and played soccer, basketball, and baseball. During these years, he also learned the challenges and joys of running, and continued to run at least 50 miles a week, until the day he died.
In 1982 after graduating summa cum laude from Harvard College, Rhys returned to Hotchkiss to teach biology, where he met his wife of 35 years, Rebecca (Becky) Snow. After two years of teaching, he worked at a research field site in Borneo, then went on to the University of California, Davis where he earned a PhD in Animal Behavior in 1995.
Rather than follow an academic tenure track, Rhys preferred the solitary focus of field ornithology, and he spent several decades researching the ecology of bird species in California and on Cape Cod and the Islands. Rhys believed passionately in supporting biodiversity through habitat preservation. His proudest achievements, therefore, came through his work for the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, in New Hampshire, where he served on committees and the Board of Trustees for twenty years, including three years as Chair.
Deeply intellectual and curious, Rhys learned Homeric Greek so he could read The Odyssey and The Iliad in their original language. An amateur Melville scholar, he would wax poetic about reading Moby-Dick for the umpteenth time.Rhys’s spirit was filled by the performing arts. Concerts by the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Early Music Festival often brought tears to his eyes, while Boston Bluegrass Union shows delivered toe-tapping fidgetiness.
Rhys will be missed by his wife, Becky Snow, his mother, Anne Bowen, extended family, friends, and anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.
A service will be held at The Hotchkiss School chapel on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at 1 p.m..
In honor of Rhys’s memory, donations can be made to the Lakes Region Conservation Trust.