05/17/2026
American beech trees, with their smooth grey bark and oval shaped green leaves, are one of the easiest trees to spot when hiking in Prince William Forest Park. About 20% of all the trees in the park are American beech trees, although you may notice that some of the leaves on these beech trees look like they're dying. The cause of these dying leaves is Beech Leaf Disease (BLD), which is a relatively new disease caused by a nematode (or worm) that overwinters in leaf buds. It causes dark striping or banding between veins in the beech leaves. As the disease progresses, the leaves will discolor, shrivel, and wilt. Because trees get their 'food' from the sunlight absorbed through their leaves, beech trees affected by this disease are basically starving to death.
Once infected with BLD, a beech tree may die within 5 years or so, depending on severity and health or size of the beech tree (older trees, for example, can survive longer than saplings). At this time, there isn't any treatment we can do for every tree in the forest, except to monitor the disease's spread. Because this disease has visibly affected many of the American beech trees in our park, only time will show us the disease's long-term effects on our forest.
