Maryland's response plan to sudden oak death (SOD)

Sudden oak death (SOD) has emerged as a new concern for Maryland residents. For SOD, HGIC partnered with the Maryland Department of Agriculture to provide the public outreach. A critical issue such as SOD requires a rapid response to educate the public. Web-based materials as well as traditional methods can provide critical, information quickly to individuals on a state and regional level. The objective was to quickly provide detailed information on biology, importance, photographs and IPM strategies on dealing with this issue. A sudden oak death web page was constructed on HGIC's web site. The page provides up-to-date information on the SOD issue, links, sample submission forms and photo gallery. It received 5,044 visitors in 2004. The URL is: http://www.hgic.umd.edu/sod/sod_menu.html. Trained HGIC staff screened phone calls and email requests for SOD samples and provided MDA with a daily list of residents with potentially infected plant material, forwarding a total of 353 names.