Hemlock Wooley Adelgid

[Phorester]

What is the hemlock you cut used for? 

I've always heard it was prone to a lot of windshake, where the growth rings seperate, which makes it unusable for about anything.

[SwampDonkey]

They use hemlock in Maine for pulpwood and stud wood. I've sat at a good restaurant near Oakfield and seen trailer load after trailer load go by in tree length form. A lot of it coming from New Brunswick.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Were cutting some pretty good hemlock in around some nasty limestone cliffs and ledges. Some of the ravines I go about a half mile out of my way to get in to. Most all of the hemlock is used for barn siding the windshook stuff goes in the gang saw and made into 1x2 battens. At one time it was estimated that there was 1.5 million ft of hemlock on this farm. I've cut hemlock well over 40" dia and counted 380 growth rings in the butt of one. It took 4 trips with the timberjack to pull that one out. One thing that really blew my mind was when we stopped for lunch one day and sat down by a small hemlock that had been cut out of the skid road it was only about 4" dia but was 86yrs old by the growth rings

[SwampDonkey]

If it's shaded badly it looks like a young seedling and cut one off and count the rings it could be 50 years old, like some balsam fir grows in shade.

[Phorester]

Goes to show that the size of a tree is more dependent on the growing space it has had during it's lifetime instead of its age.

That's the reason for thinnings, TSI, Crop Tree Release, Weedings, etc., etc.  Gives trees more growing space for better health and faster growth.

As I say under my State flag on the left.... can't have a healthy forest.............

[Ron Scott]

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Spreading in Vermont

A Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (HWA) infestation detected in southeastern Vermont last year is larger than first estimated.  According to Barbara Burns, Acting Chief of Forest Resources Protection for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, the HWA infestation first came to the state last year by natural spread.  Since then it has been found in 12 locations in the towns of Vernon and Brattleboro.  Fortunately, a recently completed multi-agency survey of forests beyond the towns’ boundaries, showed no signs of HWA infestation.  A quarantine is in place in Vermont for hemlock seedlings and wood products.  Forest health managers there are looking at options for managing the HWA population.

Chief's Newsletter

[Woolywolf]

I was recently up in the mountains, in the Boone area.  Many huge hemlocks stood dead.  It was sad to see.  Our local newspaper devoted an entire section to the hemlock wooly adelgid a few months ago.  Here are links for several articles: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1226453.html, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1226459.html, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/story/1226645.html.

One article said that researchers are releasing other non-native beetles into the smokies that prey on the adelgid.  It's seems like researchers are fighting fire with fire--not sure that's a good thing.


     

[Dodgy Loner]

You don't have much to worry about from the non-native beetles.  Unfortunately, neither do the HWAs.  There are at least three species of beetles being bred and released by researchers in several different institutions.  They have been studied to a great extent, and their only food source is the HWA.  However, although many thousands of these beetles have been released into the wild, none of them have been relocated after their release.  It will probably require a much larger breeding program than we can currently muster to establish a breeding population of the predatory beetles.  In the end, it will be our only hope.  Individual trees can be treated for HWA infestation with insecticides, as I described here, but the treatment is somewhat expensive, especially for larger trees, and it must be reapplied every 3-4 years.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Since this thread was started more than 2 yrs ago I will say the Hemlock woods that I was working in at that time has come back and looks to be in real good health. I dont know what happened to turn things around from sick and dying to good looking healthy trees.

[Dodgy Loner]

The hemlock has been totally devastated in the northwestern portion of my county, and I have yet to see an uninfested mature hemlock anywhere in the county.  I expect 90% mortality in the county within another 3-4 years, much like what has been seen in Virginia and North Carolina .

[SwampDonkey]

A friend of mine used to work at V-Tech and some of his work involved HWA in Virginia and NC. More involved with SPB though.

I don't see any fir adelgid (balsam woolly aphid) in my lot , but it's in some xmas trees further south. Our government probably won't spend too much on HWA as the species is not highly valued here. In my area it has been over harvested the last couple generations. I doubt if you googled it, that it would show up in any research in NB.

[Roxie]

My Mom lives in Sparta NC, and she was telling me last week that she had a tree guy come and treat her Hemlock.  She thought it was pricey, but she loves the trees. 

[SwampDonkey]

The best hemlock I see in my area grow on lower slopes of sugar maple ridges. Any growing along wetlands are mostly junk. There is a nice bunch down along the drive to town across the creek mixed in with the maples and yellow birch. The only other farms I know of in my local area with them are also hardwood forest, dominated by sugar maple. We had 2 or three here one time, they were also in maple woods.