Protecting NY Forests from Invasive Species By Ryan Gregoire, NYSAC Legislative Director
N
YSAC recently published a podcast episode of County Conversations featuring Mark Whitmore, the principal investigator and founder of the New York State Hemlock Initiative. Mark is a forest entomologist with the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, and he currently works with professional land managers, state and federal agencies, local government officials, and concerned citizens to help them understand the issues surrounding and strategies for minimizing the impact of non-native invasive insects such as the Emerald Ash Borer and the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. Interview edited for length and clarity. RYAN GREGOIRE Could you give an overall picture of our hemlock forests in NY? Both as a natural resource to all of us in New York, but also serving as a very important recreational and a tourism tool for our state? MARK WHITMORE
38
RG What are Hemlock Woolly Adelgids and how are they threatening forests in New York? MW The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is a little insect. In trying to describe it, I would say it's a millimeter in diameter, like a little beach ball with mouth parts that go into the twigs of the trees. It really became recognized around the 1970s, when it was killing amazing numbers of hemlocks in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's been in New York State since the 1980s. It doesn't move really rapidly in New York State, and one of the reasons is that it's susceptible to cold temperatures, and the polar vortex really slowed it down for a couple of years. But now, the past three years have been nice and warm, and I've seen the populations explode and the adelgids start to move into places that we were looking at and getting very worried about.
Hemlocks are one of the more important trees in New York's forest. They're the third or fourth most common tree in New York State. Suffice to say that in some places like the Catskills and a lot of the Adirondacks, it really is one of the most common tree species there, and it's important for a number of different things.
I feel heartened that the effort that we put in the Adirondacks has really slowed the pace of HWA expansion in the area. Whereas last year, we found some pretty heavily infested trees. Right now, we're sort of like finding little light spots.
It's called a foundation species, and this is a word that basically refers to species that form the basis of the habitat upon which a myriad of other species depend for their survival.
Where are we at currently with the insecticides that are currently being used as a short-term solution, and then also long-term with the biological controls?
NYSAC News | Fall 2021
RG
