DISPOSAL CAUTION IS URGED TREE FUNGUS SPREAD FEARED.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A statewide task force is urging Californians to be cautious when disposing of their Christmas trees after the holidays because of the threat of spreading pitch canker, a disease that can decimate tree farms and other pine trees used in landscaping.

To that end, city officials encourage people to use the free pickup service provided by local waste haulers, which started Friday and will continue through Jan. 10.

The city of Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County are providing the service. Trees should be free of ornaments and tinsel; flocked trees or those treated with fire retardant will also be accepted.

According to The Associated Press, pitch canker has been found in Christmas tree lots, landscape planting and native forests in 19 counties near the coast. Although Monterey pines are most commonly affected, the disease can also attack other California trees such as Bishop, Knobcone and Ponderosa pines.

State experts fear that infected but healthy-looking trees left outdoors after the holiday could become host to insects, which would then spread the disease to other trees.

Santa Clarita city arborist Wayne Smith acknowledged that the pitch canker could be a problem, but the likelihood of people's Christmas trees actually harboring the disease is slim.

``It is transferable, but it can be dealt with in different ways,'' he said. ``The best thing to do is remove the tree from the location and either recycle it or cut it up for the mulch pile.''

``Many pine trees, conifers and cypress trees can be affected,'' Smith said. ``But insects are only going to attack a weak tree. Most Christmas trees in houses, once they are cut down, are dead. The fungus, which is what pitch canker is, needs another living thing to survive. If the tree is dead, the disease will die as well.''

Smith said people should feel confident about leaving their discarded trees at curbside a day or two before their trash pickup days.

In a living tree, symptoms of pitch canker include the pine branches' tips ``flagging'' or drooping and that dead needles can be observed throughout the tree and over the canopy. Smith said an infected tree's trunk and limbs will take on a dark reddish pitch and, if left unchecked, the canker will eventually kill the tree.

``If people see the symptoms, they should immediately call their local arborist or tree contractor to remove the infected tissue, at least into the live healthy tissue,'' he said. ``The diseased limbs can be chipped into mulch and once that's done, the disease is gone. It needs sap flowing through the system of the tree to live.''

The tree pickup program will be conducted within Santa Clarita city limits by contract trash haulers; residents of unincorporated areas may leave their trees for curbside pickup by the county sanitation district. Trees collected by the county will be ground up by the sanitation districts and used in landfills; those collected within the city limits are mulched and distributed to residents at the city's annual Arbor Day celebration, scheduled for March 2004 at Central Park.

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com