[RP TownTalk] Alert: Insect pest - woolly adelgid - attacking hemlock trees

[Sarah Wayland]

>From the HOPE mailing list.

____________
1. Alert: Insect pest -- the woolly adelgid -- attacking local native h
    Posted by: "Greg Smith" gpsmith at igc.org greengreg60
    Date: Wed Oct 7, 2015 6:01 pm ((PDT))


Friends, neighbors and fellow tree huggers,

I'm forwarding the alert below from my friend Gabe Popkin, who serves
on the Mount Rainier Tree Commission.   Gabe also writes a pretty
interesting blog, calls contra and square dances, and plays in a
pretty fun contra dance band (Private Popkin and the Post-Partisan
Patriots), and while I urge you to check them out, those are subjects
for another time.

You'll see that Gabe is raising the alarm about woolly adelgid, an
insect that is attacking and that can kill native hemlock
trees.  He's also offering advice and help.

Best,

Greg


****

Gabe's Alert

Hi folks,

One of our best local trees, the eastern hemlock, is under attack
from a tiny insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid.

The adelgid is a serious pest that infests only hemlock trees and is
almost always deadly to the tree if no action is taken. It's
recognizable by the white fluff it makes on the undersides of hemlock
needles.

You can see photos
at:           http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/pest_al/hemlock/hwa05.htm

I've seen it on several hemlock trees around town, and it moves
around very easily so it will probably soon be on all our city's
hemlock trees if it's not already.

Hemlock itself is an evergreen tree. It's kind of like a pine or
spruce but with smaller needles and smaller cones. (It's not related
to the plant that supposedly killed Socrates.) Hemlock is not one of
our most common trees in Mount Rainier, but it grows in a number of
yards around town and in Brentwood, and it is native to this region.

Fortunately there is a chemical treatment for adelgid that is highly
effective, long-lasting (several years at least if done right) and
inexpensive. If you have an infested hemlock tree I highly encourage
you to hire an arborist to apply this treatment. It's much cheaper
than having your tree cut down, and your tree will be able to
continue providing you and your neighbors all the various benefits
that urban trees provide -- shade, clean air, reduced stormwater
runoff, carbon storage, and so on. Hemlock in particular also
provides unique habitat for several kinds of migratory birds as well
as various insects.

If you have a tree that you think might be a hemlock but are unsure,
or if you have a hemlock you want inspected for possible adelgid, I'm
happy to come check it out.

I can also recommend someone who can treat the tree if needed.

Email me at:    <mailto:gabepopkin at yahoo.com>

Please forward this to nearby listservs and anyone you know in Mount
Rainier or surrounding towns who has hemlocks in their yard. Again,
this problem is totally treatable and I'd hate for us to lose more
trees, especially hemlocks.

Lastly, small shameless but hopefully informative plug, you can read
more about the ecology of hemlock and the threat that adelgid poses
in an op-ed I wrote last winter:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/opinion/cities-as-havens-for-trees


Thank you for helping keep Mount Rainier's trees alive and healthy.

Gabe
Mount Rainier Tree Commission



Sarah Wayland, Ph.D. | www.GuidingExceptionalParents.com
<http://www.guidingexceptionalparents.com/>
Supporting students with learning differences & their families
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