The Culver City Public Works Department is actively seeking aid in an effort to preserve local ficus trees from a fungus that has already killed a number of trees.

Known as sooty canker, the disease, caused by the fungus Hendersonula toruloides or Nattrassia mangiferae, has already infected over 47 trees on Schaefer Street, two on Lincoln Avenue and two on Ocean Drive, said Steven Orozco, Culver City street and tree maintenance supervisor. Of those, 47 have been removed.

And while the Public Works Department is unsure how many ficus trees are infected, they do know that the fungus continues to infect the more mature ficus trees, destroying their canopy-like shape.

“You can see it when a tree starts to lose all of its leaves,” Orozco said, “and from there they start a decline where they lose some of their bark and produce smaller branches and leaves.”

Sooty canker causes trees to wilt and develop cankers on limbs that eventually dieback, a horticultural term that refers to a gradual death that begins at the tip of a branch and works its way backward. According to “Managing Sooty Canker,” an article published by the University of Nevada Reno, infected branches “crack and split revealing a black, dusty mass of fungal spores. Increasingly the fungus infects nearby limbs and finally the main trunk. Once the main trunk becomes diseased, the tree dies.”

It is estimated to take a number of years for a tree to die from the onset of infection. However, in severe cases, death could occur in as little as two to three seasons.

Resident Rich Waters told the City Council on Aug. 23 that sooty canker “is truly an epidemic. All you have to do is go over on Schaefer Street, which is two long blocks, and they have practically all of their ficus trees wiped out. ... I beseech you all to get on top of this before we have all of the ficus trees wiped out in Culver City.”

Vice Mayor Micheal O’Leary, who lost a tree in front of his house on Schaefer Street, called the fungus “aggressive,” and said “it appears that it has traveled three-fourths of the way down the street and [Public Works] are trying to save the few at the end, but at this point it doesn’t look very promising…We are probably going to lose all of the trees on Schaefer Street eventually.”

The fungus was discovered by the Public Works Department in winter 2009. However, workers cannot seem to control the problem because the diseased spores are spread to healthy trees by rain, wind, birds, insects and pruning tools.

The trees have little recourse this summer in the Southern California heat: While the infection is thought to occur in the winter, experts say germination and reproduction of the fungus occurs rapidly at temperatures of between 85-105 degrees Farenheit.

City staff have already been authorized to enter into a contract with a consulting arborist who specializes in the area, and expect to have a more concrete report on the condition of the trees and possible preservation methods in the next couple of weeks.

The arborist’s “task is going to be to evaluate the condition of the trees and give us recommendations in a report that we will use to take whatever actions we can to preserve as many trees as we can,” said Charles Herbertson, Public Works Director and City Engineer. “We can’t save them all but we will do the best we can.”

Added Orozco: “There are some trees that are so advanced [in the disease], that anything we do to them is not going to slow down the decline from this fungus.”

Note: This story was originally posted on Sept. 1, 2010, but due to a system error the date has been changed. We apologize for any confusion.