Walnut alert: A regional outreach plan to slow the movement of thousand cankers disease through education

Black walnut, Juglans nigra, an important tree, both economically and culturally, is widely grown and valued for its wood and its nuts. Thousand cankers disease (TCD), caused by the fungus Geosmithia morbida vectored by the walnut twig beetle, Pityopththorus juglandis, was discovered in the native range of black walnut in 2010. TCD has already killed thousands of non-native black walnut trees in the western U.S., and threatens those in its native range, where it has now been documented in North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia. State quarantines have been enacted in all confirmed states to curtail the spread and impact of this deadly disease. Unfortunately, the general public is not aware of the problem, its potential impact, or mitigation efforts.  The overall goal of this poster is to describe a regional Outreach Plan that involves the development and implementation of outreach tools and programs (web-based materials, educational displays, pamphlets, posters, fact sheets, technical papers and presentations, workshops, field days, news media outlets, etc.) to inform growers, industry, scientists, regulators, and the general public of the issues surrounding TCD in the native range of black walnut, as well as to train students to be more knowledgeable in the workforce.