You Can Help Protect Our Public Lands from Hemlock Wooly Adelgid
Actions taken now can help to control the spread of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Biological control seems the only effective control on a landscape level. The goal of biological control is to establish enough members of a species that preys on the hemlock woolly adelgid to keep the pest in check. A tiny non-native beetle, Pseudoscymnus tsugae (Pt beetle) has been shown in tests in Connecticut and Virginia to reduce the HWA population by 47 to 87 percent in five months. For more information about biological control see the HWA fact sheet at http://www.saveourhemlocks.org/pdf_docs/hwafactsheet.pdf. Pt beetles are reared at rearing laboratories in the United States, but the capacity of these labs is insufficient. What is needed are additional laboratories. The USDA Forest Service and the National Park Service are working with the University of Tennessee to open a lab in Knoxville, but because of federal funding cycles and limitations, the rearing facility will not be operational until 2005 or after, unless additional funding becomes available. We cannot overstress the urgency of the situation. Please contribute now to help Save Our Hemlocks! If you would like to contribute to this effort, please send your
checks to Please indicate that the contribution is for the “Save Our Hemlocks” initiative. The “Friends of the Smokies” is a partner on the Save Our Hemlocks Action Team, working to make sure that your contributions go directly toward reducing the hemlock woolly adelgid population in the Southern Appalachians. You can also help us track the spread of HWA by learning to identify symptoms of infestation, which you can see at http://www.fs.fed.us/na/morgantown/fhp/hwa/hwasite.html. If you suspect an infestation, please notify the following people: Tennessee: Your county agricultural agent North Carolina: Your County agent On US Forest Service land In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park |
