Vigor of individual trees in managed woodlots, urban, or other high-value landscape settings may be increased by proper pruning and tree care. Retain trees with more than 70 percent live crown and with less than 20 percent of the combined circumference of the stem and root flares affected by cankers. Harvest dead or declining trees to salvage the quality and value of the wood, or maintain the trees in the forest for their wildlife value. Retain trees free of cankers with at least 50 percent live crown and growing among diseased trees. These trees may be resistant and have value for propagation by grafting or for future breeding.
Efforts are underway to locate potentially resistant trees in native forest stands.
Contact the USDA Forest Service North Central Forest Experiment Station in St. Paul, MN, for further information if you find a healthy butternut. Butternut-strategies for managing a threatened tree . Juglans cinerea L. Butternut . Silvics of North America. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.