Concern For Beech Trees

February 24, 2025

I enjoy seeing American Beech trees (Fagus grandifolia) in the winter. They’re deciduous trees but don’t drop their leaves until spring, giving my woods a scattering of soft brown patches everywhere. And if it snows, those soft brown leaves turn into snow cones hanging from their branches.

This past Saturday I attended a Woods & Wildlife Conference organized by Virginia Tech and learned lots of things including that our Beech trees are under threat, facing a decline and slow death from Beech Leaf Disease. This disease was first discovered in Ohio in 2012, and the cause, a nematode, was just recently identified.

This disease has now been found in 13 states, Ohio, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia and the Canadian province of Ontario.

In the spring signs of Beech Leaf Disease make themselves visible on new leaves which will have dark bands between lateral veins of the leaves. Saplings will die within 5 years and mature trees tend to take longer to succumb.

We’re losing so many of our precious trees. Research is ongoing with no solution yet. Please keep up that research and figure out how to save the Beech trees. We need that research.

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Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

4 thoughts on “Concern For Beech Trees”

    1. Hi Buddy! I suggest you contact someone in the Virginia Department of Forestry. I really don’t know anything about what is being done about this heartbreaking issue.

      It is so very sad to go up and down our mountain these days. It has been such a hard winter on the trees. Ash trees that have died (because of Emerald Ash Borer) have become quite brittle and break right off, whether at the top/middle/or bottom when high winds come through – breaking as if the tree was just a pretzel rod. So many different species of trees are dying.

      Hoping you guys are well. Sending you both many hugs.

      Thank you so much for reading my posts!
      Bren

      1. Would love to catch up
        Will be staying at Spring Oak Farm (Laurie Dean) mid April and hopefully show up at Yoga (?)… See you then ?

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