National Park Service Mobilizing North Carolinians for Adelgid Fight

A wooly adelgid-infested hemlock branch.
Photo courtesy of USDA Forestry Service.

The National Park Service, Friends of the Smokies, and the Western North Carolina Alliance have scheduled a public workshop Oct. 28 to mobilize western North Carolinians for the ?EUR??,,????'??fight?EUR??,,????'?? against the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), an Asian aphid-like insect introduced into North America around 1924. The insect sucks sap from young hemlock twigs and retards or prevents tree growth. The insect has already devastation hemlocks on the Appalachian range north of here.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson said the hemlock trees would succumb to the insect without collaborative intervention.

The U.S. Forestry Service estimates half the range of hemlock in the eastern United States is infested and the entire range at risk. Insecticide use In the forest is not considered viable. Biological controls are being tried. Importing the natural enemies of the HWA from Asia began in 1992. Four predators have been identified, imported and released to attempt to control the HWA populations. This effort is not considered an immediate remedy, but only part of a long-term solution. The search for other natural predators of the HWA are being sought.