How do we prevent and contain oak wilt in our Texas HOA's oak trees?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 29, 2026

How a Texas HOA board stops oak wilt: the Feb 1 to June 30 pruning ban, painting wounds, red oak removal, 4-foot trenches, injections and state cost-share.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Oak wilt is a fungus, Bretziella fagacearum, that plugs an oak's water-conducting tissue. Texas A&M Forest Service says it is confirmed in 76 Texas counties and is killing oaks at epidemic levels in Central and West Texas. Nobody can cure an infected tree. A board can still protect the rest of its canopy with four habits that work: - No pruning or wounding of oaks from February 1 through June 30, and paint every wound the moment it is made, in any season. - Cut down and destroy infected red oaks before they grow spore mats. - When a center shows up in live oaks, trench at least 4 feet deep and at least 100 feet beyond the last tree with symptoms. - Inject valuable oaks near a center with propiconazole before they show symptoms. Texas has no state oak wilt law. Your authority comes from the declaration, the board's rules and any city ordinance, and those differ by community. This guide is education, not legal advice.

How it moves through a neighborhood

It travels two ways, and each one points at a different tree on your property. Overland, through red oaks. Texas red, Shumard, blackjack and water oaks can grow fungal mats under their bark, most often in spring. The mats smell like fermenting fruit and draw small sap-feeding beetles, which carry spores to fresh wounds on healthy oaks. A wound is any wound: a pruning cut, a mower scrape on a root flare, a hail-split limb, a trench for a sprinkler line. Mats form only on red oaks, never on live oaks or white oaks. Underground, through live oaks. Live oaks grow in clumps called motts with roots joined together. Texas A&M Forest Service says infection centers in live oaks spread an average of 75 feet a year, ranging from none to 150 feet in a direction. So the greenbelt mott is usually the biggest asset at risk, and one red oak in the entry median is the biggest way the disease arrives. Watering and fertilizing do not protect a tree.

Confirm it before you spend money

On live oaks, look for veinal necrosis: leaf veins that turn yellow and then brown. Vein banding and brown leaf tips also show up, and dead leaves with brown veins can lie under the tree for months. Most live oaks die within 3 to 6 months of the first symptoms. Red oaks die within 4 to 6 weeks and often turn an autumn color in midsummer. Drought, heat, lightning, herbicide drift and too much salt or fertilizer can look the same. Before approving a trench or a removal: 1. Call your county's Texas A&M Forest Service forester through the Find My Forester tool on texasoakwilt.org. Agency staff come onto property only at the owner's request, so the board asks for common area and the owner asks for a lot. 2. Have the forester or a Texas Oak Wilt Qualified arborist take samples for the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab. The agency recommends lab confirmation. 3. Get a map that marks every tree with symptoms. The trench line is measured from the last one.

Prevention rules for every vendor

Write these into the landscape and tree contracts. Our guide on hiring an HOA landscaping contractor covers the rest of that scope. - The blackout. The agency's pruning guidelines say avoid pruning or wounding oaks from February 1 through June 30. Exceptions: hazardous limbs, traffic visibility, emergency utility clearance, storm-damaged limbs, limbs rubbing a building, raising low limbs over a street, required construction clearance, and dead branches where no live wood is exposed. - Paint. Any paint or wound dressing works if it goes on immediately. Paint fresh stumps too. - Timing. The guidelines name late fall as the best time to prune, and the FAQ says November through January. - Debris. Chip, burn or bury diseased red oak wood right away. - Firewood. Unseasoned red oak firewood can grow mats in the pile. Allow only wood dried for at least a full year near association oaks. If an infected red oak cannot be hauled off at once, cover the pile with clear plastic and bury the edges. Contract wording you can adapt: "Contractor shall not prune, cut or wound any oak on association property between February 1 and June 30 except for the safety exceptions in the Texas A&M Forest Service pruning guidelines, and then only with written approval from the board's designee. Contractor shall paint every cut, wound and fresh stump on an oak immediately, in any season, and shall keep string trimmers and mowers off oak trunks and root flares."

When a center shows up on common ground

Work in this order. 1. Remove infected red oaks right away. Dead or dying live oaks spread nothing overland and can stay standing until they become a hazard. 2. Trench. The agency's protocol is a trench at least 4 feet deep, at least 100 feet beyond the last tree with symptoms, with at least one tree without symptoms between the disease and the trench. Cut or uproot every oak inside the line except injected trees. Texas A&M Forest Service reports about a 74 percent success rate for program trenches since 1988, and says failed trenches were too close or too shallow. Pushing over or cutting the sick trees instead does not work, because the fungus keeps living in the joined roots. 3. Inject the trees you most want to keep, such as the clubhouse live oak. The agency reports 80 to 90 percent success on oaks that show no symptoms yet, dropping as crown loss grows. Only 10 to 20 percent of untreated live oaks survive. Injection protects the injected tree and does not stop the spread, since most of the fungicide moves up, not into the roots. 4. Recheck treated trees after 12 months. The FAQ says most are injected once and treated again about two years later. Anyone who injects trees for pay must be licensed through the Texas Department of Agriculture, so a volunteer cannot do it on association trees. Texas A&M Forest Service does not recommend vendors, but texasoakwilt.org lists trenching and injection companies.

Using the state cost-share program

The Texas Oak Wilt Suppression Program pays 50 percent of approved costs, with these caps: - Trenching: up to $5,000 per cooperator per year, or up to $7,500 per project per year when several cooperators share one trench. - Roguing or pushing diseased trees inside the cost-shared trench: up to $5,000 per cooperator per year. - Removing certain diseased red oaks: up to $2,000 per cooperator per year, approved only by agency staff. The rule that catches boards: the application must be approved before any cost-shared work begins. Applications are taken year-round. The program page lists Central Texas landowners and communities as eligible, so ask your forester whether the association qualifies as a cooperator. When a center crosses from a greenbelt into back yards, ask about a single project with the association and the affected owners as joint cooperators.

Owners' trees and the board's rules

Check for a city ordinance first. Texas A&M Forest Service lists oak wilt or tree-trimming ordinances in cities including San Antonio, Austin, Alamo Heights, Lakeway, Bee Cave, Horseshoe Bay and West Lake Hills. If the declaration lets the board adopt landscaping rules, a short oak rule protects the common trees from the lot next door: no oak pruning from February 1 through June 30 except for safety, every cut painted, and no stacked unseasoned red oak firewood. Before fining an owner, Texas Property Code section 209.006 requires written notice by certified mail describing the violation and telling the owner they may request a hearing under section 209.007 within 30 days. Section 209.006(h)(4) lists removal or alteration of landscape as an example of an uncurable act, which means no cure period is owed, but the notice and hearing rights still apply. Have the association's attorney confirm before the first fine. A notice you can send in late January: "Oak wilt has been confirmed in our community. From February 1 through June 30, please do not prune or wound oak trees. If a limb must come down for safety, paint the cut immediately with any paint. Questions go to the board at [email]."

A sample year and the mistakes to skip

November to January: walk the property with the forester, prune oaks, file cost-share applications and get trench bids. Late January: send the owner notice. February to June: no routine oak pruning; inspect red oaks that showed symptoms last fall and remove any that do. Summer: watch live oaks for veinal necrosis and approve trenches once applications are cleared. Fall: plant replacements. The agency says fall is the best planting season in Texas and recommends waiting a few years before putting oaks back into a center. Mix in non-oak species. Our guide on planning an HOA tree maintenance program covers the long-term inventory. Mistakes that cost communities their canopy: - Letting the crew prune in April because they are already on site. - Starting a trench before the cost-share approval arrives, which forfeits the reimbursement. - Placing the trench at 50 feet to save mature trees on the far side. - Paying for cornmeal, mycorrhizae or other organic cures. The agency says none of them cure oak wilt. - Treating injection as containment. - Stacking split red oak by the clubhouse fire pit for the winter.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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