The Tennessee Department of Ag. confirmed the presence of Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD), which is a progressive disease that kills a black walnut tree within two to three years after initial infection. The disease-causing fungus, Geosmithia morbida, is transmitted by a small twig beetle. Branches and trunk tissue are killed by repeated infections by the fungus, as the beetles carry the fungus into new bark cambium tissue.
Controls for thousand cankers disease have not yet been identified and their development will require better understanding of the biology of the walnut twig beetle and the canker-producing Geosmithia sp. Rapid detection and removal of infected trees currently remains the primary means of managing thousand cankers disease.
The current counties under emergency quarantine for Thousand Cankers Disease are Knox and Blount counties. All adjoining counties are considered buffer areas and are also restricted from moving regulated articles. These include Union, Anderson, Monroe, Loudon, Sevier, Jefferson, and Grainger counties.
All plants and plant parts of the genus Juglans are regulated articles and are restricted in movement including but not limited to nursery stock, budwood, scionwood, green lumber, and other material living, dead, cut, or fallen, including logs, stumps, roots, branches, mulch and composted and un-composted chips.
Specific exceptions are nuts, nut meats, hulls, processed lumber (one hundred percent (100%) bark-free, kiln-dried with squared edges), and finished wood products without bark, including walnut furniture, instruments, and gun stocks derived from the genus Juglans.
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