The winter of 2016- 2017 was a good one for hemlock woolly adelgids (HWA) in Vermont, which is probably bad news for hemlock trees. The adelgid is an invasive forest insect that attacks hemlock trees and was first discovered in Vermont in 2007. Last winter’s HWA mortality rate was only 65%, compared to 99 – 97% for the previous three years. Forest health staff with the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation are seeking volunteers to help survey for HWA.
A confluence of several events has renewed concerns for the well-being of hemlock trees in Vermont. Read more about why Vermonters should be especially concerned and what you can do to help.
Despite the discouraging discovery of an invasive species near Lake George, the Adirondacks have also seen some recent bright spots in the fight against invasive species.
Walk through a hardwood forest this month and it may seem more like October than July. Trees that normally provide cool shade have bare crowns with just a hint of green. And is the bark on that sugar maple moving? This is not a trick of the light: you are, in fact, in the middle of a forest tent caterpillar outbreak.
A new study of the flight capacity of the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) found it to have an average flight distance of 1.4 miles in a 24-hour period, but some could fly as far as 8.5 miles in that span.
Experts are expecting that white pine needle damage in Vermont this year may be worse than previous years. Vermont may be the only northern New England state to see such an increase.
CHICAGO — The emerald ash borer has left a trail of destruction in its wake — but also some beauty, Curtis Witek says.
Witek, of Noble Square, is founder of City Forest Products, which takes wood destroyed by the emerald ash borer and turns it into products like cutting boards and end tables. Witek started the business, which he runs out of a small workshop in Wicker Park, in January and will officially start selling his creations with an April 28 launch party.
A new project in South Sioux City is a model alternative to burning or landfill disposal of the ash trees the City will likely lose when the ash borer invades their communities. The stack of boards will become a cabin at South Sioux City’s Community Orchard.
Some are disarmingly named, like the cutesy Chinese mitten crab. Others have names more indicative of their undesirable nature, like rock snot, an algae that slimes up cool forest streams.
They are some of more than 100 invasive species that conservationists must battle in New York State, which teems with a growing number of plants, birds, fish, insects, mosses, molds and fungi that actually belong somewhere else.
The numbers of Forest Tent Caterpillar, a native insect that feeds on hardwoods, are on the rise. The Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (VT FPR) monitors Forest Tent Caterpillar. Trap catches this year increased compared to last year in 12 of 13 sites. Populations seem to be growing across the state. The 2016 aerial survey mapped at least 24,500 acres of FTC defoliation. Heaviest defoliation occurred in Essex, Lamoille, Orleans and Caledonia counties.
Hemlock trees in southern Vermont have been threatened with hemlock woolly adelgid for several years. They have also been stressed by drought for two seasons. Recently another stressor has been added to the mix. Elongate hemlock scale (EHS) has been found in stands of hemlock in Windham County, occasionally in conjunction with hemlock woolly adelgid.
Just 15 years ago, the eastern hemlock tree, the mighty Redwood of the East, was a scenic highlight of Virginia’s Skyline Drive, creating the shady groves that put Shenandoah National Park on the conservation map.
Now 95% of them are dead, rotting on the forest floor or still standing above the canopy as gray ghosts, with a few scattered survivors living on borrowed time as their attackers literally suck the life out of them.
Last year’s dry spring, coupled with a stretch of dry weather this year, has helped to fuel the resurgence of the spongy moth caterpillar, a furry nuisance blamed for defoliating an estimated 9 million acres from Maine to Maryland in 1981
