A grant secured by the Foundation will allow the National Park Service to treat eastern and Carolina hemlocks for the invasive woolly adelgid.

    This spring, work crews will suit up and go to the rescue of eastern and Carolina Hemlock trees infested by the woolly adelgid, a tiny invasive insect striking down these majestic trees.

The beetle Laricobius  nigrinus is a woolly adelgid predator. Photo by Ashley Lamb, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

    Late last year, the Foundation received a grant from the Hemlock Restoration Initiative to collaborate with the National Park Service to help save these disappearing trees which are native to North Carolina. The funding will allow the chemical treatment of trees near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Avery, Haywood, Transylvania, and Watauga counties in North Carolina. Without intervention, woolly adelgid infestations can claim trees within a few years.

    Meanwhile, two additional awardees are blazing trails to thwart the invasive woolly adelgid in other ways. While treatment crews work to save the stands that are vulnerable in the forest, Southwestern NC Resource Conservation & Development Council, based at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, is diligently working to create a hybrid hemlock species that will be resistant to the aphid-like insect. The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council is expanding its program to release a natural predator, the Laricobius nigrinus beetle native to the Pacific Northwest, which can eat six or more adelgids per day. So far, the program has seen success in the Grandfather Mountain area.

    We are excited to be part of this three-prong approach to a problem plaguing our landscape and affecting the health and beauty of the forests surrounding the Blue Ridge Parkway. We'll share more information as the project progresses.