This article reviews the work involved in a recently completed Specialty Crop Block Grant project focusing on surveying for the oak wilt pathogen (with our NYS Department of Environmental Conservation [NYSDEC] collaborators) and improving the Cornell University, Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic’s (PDDC) diagnostic procedures to include adding a molecular technique. The PDDC staff identified the fungus that causes the oak wilt disease for the first time in 2008 in a small neighborhood in Schenectady County, New York.