Help Our Hemlocks By Jac Talcott

HELP OUR

HEMLOCKS

By Jac Talcott, Watershed Stewardship Coordinator

When you think about the forests and foliage of Northern Michigan, the Eastern Hemlock tree is one that may come to mind. This conifer serves as one of the oldest native trees within the Great Lakes Region and has spent generations establishing its habitat in our moist and cool climate. Not only do these trees serve us with their mystical beauty but they are crucial for our future by ensuring biodiversity in our forests. Today, we have an opportunity to help them thrive. Just like our beautiful ashes, beeches and chestnuts, hemlocks are at risk for decline – and an invasive insect is to blame.

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) is a very small insect originating from Japan that invaded Virginia’s hemlock tree stands in the 1920’s. Like many of our other successful invaders and parasites, this insect gets spread by hitchhiking on migrating birds and firewood. The invasive HWA spends its life consuming the sap that flows between needles and branches of native hemlock trees. Once the tree is unable to provide nutrition throughout its system, the needles turn to a grayish color before falling off completely. It only takes a couple of years before an invaded tree starves to death from lack of nutrition.

We are lucky that Charlevoix and Emmet County do not yet have any known infestations of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. For now, it seems our hemlocks are safe. But in the latest surveying efforts in 2021 led by our local and state programs, HWA has been identified as far north as Benzie County (just south of Traverse City). With an inevitable

invasion in our near future, now is the time to take action to protect our local hemlocks. Below are several ways that you can aid in preventing the spread of HWA:

1 Keep bird feeders and other animal feeders away from hemlock trees. 3 During phases of drought, help your home’s hemlocks by supplying water to them.

4 Contact CAKE CISMA at 231-5338363 x5 to learn about how to monitor for HWA.