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[at-l] Wooly adelgids & hemlock health along the AT



Hemlocks, being somewhat moisture loving, tend to be scarce along the ridge 
tracking Trail in SWVA.  However, where they are, they tend to be in trouble. 
Within a few hundred yards of the Trail not far from my home, there is a small 
old stand of magnificent trees, which are in deep trouble.  In addition, one 
of my USFS contacts told me that the little bugger appears to be developing an 
appetite for other conifers where they are in heave concentration and have 
devoured the hemlocks.  So, these things scare me.

Chainsaw

BTW -- I, too, tend to be a bit of a Luddite when it comes to these matters 
and related matters such as bio-engineering.  Hey these folk who want to add 
genes from this to that, etc are from similar schools with similar training as 
those who brought us Mad Cow.   I don't trust that there is enough known about 
a lot of stuff that isn't "naturally."

OTOH, worldwide commerce, folk traveling hither-and-yon isn't all that 
natural, ether.  So, OB brings a bug from GA to NC and we all take it much 
father afield, after having eaten foods from all over the world, which in 
their shipping, in all of its mechanics, could have introduced who-knows-what, 
where.  OIOW, as Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

BTW2 -- This past summer I met the volunteer who releases the $1.00 a beetle 
in the Park.  He said that $10,000.00 worth of them would fill a 50g Altoids 
tin.  He said that the reason they are so dear is that so far the biologist 
have not found any alternative food source (artificial or natural) on which to 
raise the breeders.  OIOW, they have to raise the adelgids to feed the beetles 
to raise the beetles to fight the adelgids.  For what it is worth, he also 
said that so far they have no evidence of the beetles reproducing in the wild.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brett" <blisterfree@isp01.net>
To: "Appalachian Trail" <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>; 
<gypsy97@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 2:21 PM
Subject: [at-l] Wooly adelgids & hemlock health along the AT


I examined quite a few hemlocks along the trail during a
southbound hike last year. IMHO, the wooly adelgid problem
is overstated. <<
SNIP