What's Going On?

 I noted 2 Oak Trees on our Farm that don't appear to be in good shape.  These are images that I took.  The above leaf shows what appears to be beginning damage. No bugs seem in sight.  Over time, the portion inbetween the veins is all worn away. Some green remains around the veins.

Eventually, all the leaves turn a greyish brown with their lack of green.  They look almost surreal with their transparent look. From a distance, the trees stand out against the green all around.  Looking more closely, the trees are still producing a very few green leaves on the ends of the branches. Both of these trees are young trees. 

I have noticed what seems like the same damage but not near so extensive on a few other trees on our property.  Plus, I noticed that our neighbor to the south has a couple of trees which have this brown look too.

We are not sure what's up, but we are concerned.  I am sending a link to this page to Jennifer Schutter (Missouri University Extension Horticulturist) and Yvette Amerman (Missouri Department of Conservation Forester).  Hopefully, they will have some ideas as to what is going on.

I read several years ago as climate changes, plants and animals will be in the wrong place.  Animals can move, although the habitat may not be right after they get there.  Plants can move too, but they are slower and the conditions may not be accomodating. Trees will take a direct hit.  The wrong climate to which they are subjected will weaken their systems.  Over time, they will be more susceptible to damage by insects and diseases.  The Humans will get all crazy trying to rid the plant of the disease or bug.  But the problem is far deeper than that and it is likely not one they will see. I am not sure where I read this but I believe it was from a writing of Bill McKibben. 

I do not know if that is what is happening here.  But we are concerned.
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Yvette forwarded notes from the MDC Entomologist.  She notes that either way it is late enough in the year that the trees should recover next year.

Yes, it’s some kind of leaf skeletonizer. It’s possible that it could be a moth caterpillar like one of the species on shingle oak, but we don’t usually see damage on other oaks when skeletonizers are out in large numbers on shingle oak.

The other possibility that might be more likely is the scarlet oak sawfly. It’s one of the slug-like sawflies. Occasionally we see them reach large populations on a few trees in 1 or 2 locations. Typically their populations crash after that one year and we don’t see them again. So at this late point in the season, I would not worry about these. Some info:

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/pest_al/sawfly/sawfly.htm

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth/pubs/oakpests/p9.html

http://bugs.osu.edu/bugdoc/Shetlar/factsheet/ornamental/FSoakslug.htm