Meeting Addresses Saving Hemlocks From Woolly Adelgid There will be an informative meeting on the Woolly Adelgid at the Agricultural Service Center on Thursday, June 8th at 1:30 p.m. with Dr. Jill Sidebottom, Extension Specialist (Mountain Conifer IPM) from the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center in Fletcher. Della Riley, Extension Agent, Agriculture will have samples of the Woolly Adelgid available for viewing and discussion at this meeting. The hemlock woolly adelgid is a tiny insect first detected in the western United States in 1924. It is known to kill eastern and Carolina hemlocks within a few years of first infesting them. The hemlock woolly adelgid is steadily spreading south into the oldest and largest stands of hemlocks in the Southern Appalachians, threatening a unique forest ecosystem and the animal and plant communities it shelters. Native to Japan and China, the hemlock woolly adelgid is an aphid-like insect you can barely see with the naked eye. What you can see is the white, waxy “wool” that covers the adelgid. A sure sign of HWA infestation is tiny cottony tufts at the base of hemlock needles. The “wool” is present throughout the year, but is most prominent in late spring. The HWA feeds on the sap at the base of hemlock needles, restricting nutrients to the foliage and causing the needles to change from deep green to a grayish green and then fall off. Without needles the tree starves to death, usually within 3-5 years of the initial attack. Another sign of HWA infestation is thinning in the crown of the hemlock tree. HWAs are borne by winds or carried by migratory birds, mammals and humans. Infested nursery stock has carried the insects into some areas. Adelgid populations can increase dramatically, since all HWA are female and they reproduce asexually twice a year. One individual can lay up to 300 eggs yielding up to 90,000 new adelgids in one year. Hemlocks may live up to 800 years or more. They thrive in the shade where their thick, evergreen foliage helps maintain moisture and moderate temperatures on the forest floor. Hemlocks help cool mountain streams that are home to trout and other native fish, as well as crawfish, salamanders and numerous aquatic insects. In winter, hemlocks moderate ground-level temperatures and help keep streams ice-free. In thick hemlock boughs, many birds find shelter and places to nest. In one study, 96 percent of all wood thrush nests found by surveyors were in hemlocks. Some warblers only nest in hemlocks. The devastation caused by the hemlock wooly adelgid cannot be underestimated, according to a press release from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Foresters warn of a potential disaster comparable to the chestnut blight, which eliminated chestnut trees from the Southern Appalachians and radically changed the forest composition of the Southeast. The first HWA infestations were found in the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests in 2001 and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2002. The number of infested sites in the region continues to grow. According to the NC Cooperative Extension, the good news is that the National Park Service, the USDA Forest Service and state and local agencies are moving aggressively to control the spread of the hemlock woolly adelgid. To prevent HWA infestations, locate birdfeeders away from the hemlocks in your yard. If your trees become infested, contact the North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Ashe County Center at 219-2650 to report the infestation and to get information about available treatments. This information has been obtained and made available to the public by the US Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture. A copy of this information is available at http://www.saveourhemlocks.org. For special accommodations, contact Cooperative Extension at 219-2650. North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. In addition, the two Universities welcome all persons without regard to sexual orientation.