HALT PINE FUNGUS, COUNTY ADVISED.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Staff Writer

VENTURA - An environmental organization urged Ventura County officials on Tuesday to take steps to contain the pitch canker fungus, which attacks pine trees and has spread up and down the coast.

Richard Hawley, executive director for Greenspace The Cambria Land Trust in Cambria, told the Board of Supervisors nothing can be done to make a pine immune to the fungus, or to save a pine tree once it is infected. The only option, he said, is to prevent its spread.

``Pitch canker can affect 17 species of pine and Douglas spruce and is spread by insects, wind and even green-waste recycling trucks spewing spores,''said Hawley, whose company recently completed a report about the fungus for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

``Ventura County has reason to be concerned.''

The supervisors forwarded the report to the county's solid waste department and agricultural commissioner.

Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Alan Laird said the fungus was first spotted in Ventura County about five years ago, but he could not say how many trees have been affected.

``You really can't do much about it, so we're just trying to educate people so it doesn't spread to other areas because it's already out of hand,'' Laird said.

The pitch canker fungus is spread mostly through beetles that bore into infected trees, then travel to other trees carrying the fungus on their bodies.

The fungus was first discovered in Santa Cruz 14 years ago and has since infested 22 coastal counties from Mendocino to San Diego and infected 85 percent of that area's 50 million Monterey pines.

Although the fungus itself cannot be seen, some signs of infection include lesions in the bark that are oozing pitch and resin, as well as tips of branches that turn from the standard dark green to light green, red and eventually brown.

To prevent the spread, pine trees or waste should be transported in enclosed vehicles, pruning sheers and other equipment should be disinfected, and dead pine material should be removed and disposed of, officials said.

``It's frustrating that we don't yet know how to protect our trees, but what is encouraging is that some trees have resistance,'' said Don Owen, an entomologist with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. ``We hope to use those trees as a source of seed to create resistant offspring. We have a few of them out there and just have to identify them.''