Courtesy: UNH Cooperative ExtensionBy BRIDGET MURPHY
Associated Press
DURHAM, N.H. (AP) - Forestry officials plan to take a closer look at a tree disease that's attacking white pines in New Hampshire.
Known as Caliciopsis pinea, the canker causes dead spots under bark that affect tree growth.
Kyle Lombard of the New Hampshire Forest Health Program says it was first identified in New Hampshire in 1997, but little is known about the disease in general.
Now government officials are trying to determine how serious the problem is and how much damage it does to the trees.
The canker starts with a lesion on the bark of a white pine. It penetrates inward, while spreading to other trees through spores.
Lombard says experts also will follow infected white pine logs to saw mills to measure any loss in the value of the lumber.
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