adelgid

[Splinter]

So I heard a rumor that some unlucky landowner in rockingham county NH was forced to cut and burn 30 acres of hemlock due to HWA.

My acreage is in rockingham county and have 20-30 acres of hemlock stand, and hemlock mixed heavily throughout the rest. No sign of HWA yet, I've been looking.

I am torn about what to do.
Harvest, or hang on and hope for the best? try to convert?
Hemlocks range from small pole to sawtimber.

To top it off the local mills have all shut down, probably for good.

Overall have 330mbf and 960cds of hemlock according to a 2006 cruise.

Thanks

[Rob]

Splinter ,

            I havent heard of this happening but I really would'nt be suprised if it did . There really has'nt been a good or for that fact a decent market for hemlock in NH for the past 5 years atleast . We use to ship it to a mill in Canada mainly just good sized butt logs and the rest would go as pulp , other than that it would all go thru our chipper and sent to the Shiller Station for power .
            With they way the market is these days Hemlock is now basically a biomass fuel , for the most part fell and chip it all , Im sure this isnt what you want to hear but for the past 3 yrs or so this is almost all we do with hemlock woodlots , if the lot has other timber on it which most do , IE: Pine , Mixed hardwood we would go in and thin the stand of all the hemlock.Lets light back onto the forest floor and promotes regen.
             
                                                 Later Rob

[Sawyerfortyish]

The hemlocks around here looked real bad about 6 or 8 years ago but have since seemed to recover. There were whole hemlock forests that died but the ones left have no signs of hwa and now look very healthy. I wish you were closer I wouldn't mind having 50,000 ft of hemlock on hand I go through it pretty quick.