Forester Randy Weise samples an oak tree in Brookings to assess the damage done by sudden oak death disease, a water mold that spreads via a windborn spore. If the disease continues its spread north, Oregon's $60 billion timber industry could suffer.

COOS BAY — Walter Suttle knows the cost of catching sudden oak death.

His employer, the national horticultural supplier Monrovia, gained headlines seven years ago, after its California nursery accidentally shipped contaminated camellias to at least six states.

The disease already was known as a voracious killer of oak trees, but no one had known it could jump to camellias.

Once the disease was lab-confirmed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture temporarily shut down infected garden centers. Monrovia, with its reputation in crisis, spent millions to destroy all of the infected plants.

“That was a bad experience,” said Suttle, the company’s technical services manager. “A very bad experience.”

The outbreak was largely contained, but it’s an example of the cat-and-mouse game the government is playing with one of the world’s most aggressive plant diseases. Now, after years of isolation in California, sudden oak death is spreading in Southern Oregon.

Pathologists fear what the disease will do to the state’s natural flora. Loggers and nursery owners fear red tape and import bans from other countries.

“They could say we don’t want logs from Coos County, period,” said forest pathologist Alan Kanaskie.

The disease was first detected in Curry County 10 years ago. Despite a multimillion-dollar eradication program, it’s moving slowly north toward Coos County. A quarantine zone that once covered nine square miles now spans half of Curry County.

Frank Burris, a watershed management educator for Oregon State University, said it may no longer be a question of whether the disease can be stopped. The question instead is when it will arrive in Coos County.

“The bottom line is, we are losing the battle,” Burris said. “The disease keeps moving ahead of us, and we are running out of money to do these tree removals on tree owners’ property.”

If the disease keeps spreading north — as most experts expect if it’s left unchecked — Oregon’s $60 billion timber industry could take an expensive hit.

Sudden oak death earned its name after swaths of oaks began dying in the central California coast in the 1990s.

Experts were at a loss to pinpoint the cause. Not until 2000 did researchers Matteo Garbelotto and David Rizzo identified the cause: a fungus-like pathogen called Phytophthora ramorum.

Garbelotto, an associate professor at University of California Berkeley, calls it one of the world’s most dreaded tree diseases.

“We know it’s very adaptable, and that’s kind of a concern, because at the time of our discovery we were mostly concerned about oaks,” Garbelotto said. “I would say it’s one of the most scary pathogens because we can’t put in a box.”

Garbelotto and other researchers still don’t know the disease’s global origin, but it has proven deadly to tan oaks, canyon live oaks, coast live oaks and California black oaks.

Typically, an affected oak will be doomed months before it shows outward signs of dying. Once die-back begins, however, the tree’s crown and canopy turn brown within a few weeks. In some cases, the entire tree may fall over.