HWA

HWA Seminar for Landowners

HWA Landowner Treatment Seminar

Learn more about the threat posed by Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), and how to treat your own trees.  Scientists are making advancements in establishing populations of bio-control agents – the natural predators of HWA – but, for now, landowners should proactively protect their trees.  We’ll show you how: 

 HWA Seminar for Landowners

This event is free to all – held at 5 pm on Thursday, 7 October 2021, at the new Cook Forest State Park office, 100 Route 36, Cooksburg, PA 16217.  

Join specialists on invasive insects from the PA Bureau of Forestry for information on at-home treatment for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), including:

  • the importance of hemlock trees
  • the reduced cost of treatment (far less than removing dead trees!)
  • different treatment methods, including:
    • overview of available pesticides;
    • which is best for a given situation; and
    • the best seasons for treatments

followed by an on-site session during which attendees can actually apply the treatment – this single application should protect each target hemlock for seven years!

We’ll be walking along the Clarion River for the HWA treatment field work.  Please wear long pants and closed shoes; gloves will be provided.  

HWA kills trees - Protect your Hemlocks!

Attendees may be able to loan equipment from the PA Bureau of Forestry for treating their private hemlock stands – more details at the event. 

Hope for Hemlocks article

hemlocks over Cook Forest Longfellow Bridge

The Cook Forest Conservancy obtained permission from the author to link to this informative article, which summarizes the situation, the current science, and the programs and trials underway in the US to control HWA (hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect) on Eastern Hemlocks, as of late 2020.  Cook Forest State Park is a priority area for HWA treatment, as both an exemplary old-growth area, and a National Natural Landmark – so our trees are in better shape than most.  HWA is currently in the forest, though, and we and all others in hemlock forests must remain informed and vigilant. 

Hope for hemlocks: New tactics found to fight deadly pest

Hope for Hemlocks article

by Ad Crable for the Bay Journal, 23 November 2020

The article bluntly sets forth the magnitude of the threat:

“Without intervention, most trees in natural settings will die,” according to [Pennsylvania’s] latest Eastern Hemlock Conservation Plan.


There still are an estimated 124 million hemlock trees greater than five inches in diameter alive in Pennsylvania. But that’s nearly 13 million fewer than in 2004, and the mortality rate has increased fourfold since 1989.

and emphasizes the importance of Eastern hemlock to hundreds of other species, and its unique and irreplaceable niche in the forest ecosystem.  For example, Hemlock groves provide cooling, filtering, and erosion control along streambanks, and their survival is essential for the survival of native trout, and the other organisms of Pennsylvania’s cold water streams.


The article succinctly covers the current methods of protecting hemlocks, from injecting chemical pesticides into the soil surrounding tree roots, to releasing varieties of beetles and sliver flies that predate on the HWA.  Scientists are studying stands of hemlock which appear resistant to HWA, and working on replicating this characteristic.


Science is working to help the hemlocks find a natural balance – to let the tree adapt to this non-native insect threat, or to bring in predators of HWA to keep its impact on hemlock health manageable – and to keep this valuable and venerable conifer in our forests.  Because, as Donald Eggen, forest health supervisor for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry so aptly states:

When you walk through a hemlock forest, you are experiencing a unique habitat that is only found in a hemlock forest.

HWA in Cook Forest – 2020 Update

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid – it’s a non-native invasive insect that’s a massive threat to the old-growth hemlock trees of Cook Forest, and it’s still here.

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in Cook Forest State Park - present in 2020

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in Cook Forest State Park

Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) has been consistently treated by state agencies since it was first found in Cook Forest State Park in 2013.  First – the bad news – it’s still here.  The photo above was taken in May 2020, and those white little cotton-like tufts confirm the presence of HWA on hemlock trees within park boundaries. 

The good news: 

  • the infestation is not blanket, but concentrated in small areas; 
  • the Eastern Hemlocks in Cook Forest remain largely healthy;
  • the state is continuing treatment, even in this most uncertain of years — 100,000 inches of trees are scheduled to be treated again in 2020, as soon as rainfall rises the water to levels enabling soil injection

HWA was never going to be a short-lived threat, and it’s important to keep in mind the utter devastation it wrought in the Great Smoky Mountains, where it hit first, and in a warmer climate.  The PA Bureau of Forestry continues to work toward establishing a bio-control for the insect, as exists in places where HWA is native (the Pacific Northwest and Japan).  Until then, regular treatments can keep these hemlocks healthy, and their surrounding ecosystems intact.  Eastern Hemlock is a “keystone” species, and integral for keeping our streams cool and clear, for filtering pollutants, and for and managing storm runoff. 

These tasks become more challenging as our climate cycle changes – we’ve experienced stronger, shorter storms punctuating long dry periods, which means less water is being absorbed into the aquifer.  Western Pennsylvania also had a warm winter, which favors reproduction of HWA – and they reproduce exponentially.

HWA – What can be done by individuals to protect Hemlock trees?

Monitoring is of utmost importance – regularly check the health of the hemlocks in your yard, and stay vigilant when hiking or out on state forest lands.  Since HWA often infects trees from the top down, especially check branches blown off by wind, and the upper canopies of hemlock trees that have recently fallen.

We appreciate your supporting ongoing efforts – both in the state and private sectors – to control HWA.

  • Private landowners seeking assistance for trees they think may be infested can contact the CFC, or their county’s Service Forester.
  • To report infestations found on public land, please email PaForester@pa.gov – it’s ideal if you can provide a GPS location, and a clear photograph of the suspected bugs, as well.

Follow these links to learn more about the importance of eastern hemlock, or the invasive insect threatening it – hemlock woolly adelgid.

Cathedral film at Clarion University

Cathedral - the Fight to Save the Ancient Hemlocks of Cook Forest - Wild Excellence Films - 03/10/20 CUP

A short documentary on how & why the State Park is protecting the Hemlock trees of Cook Forest from the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) – and what it would mean if we lost that battle.  Hemlock is a keystone species, irreplaceable.  Eastern hemlock trees filter sediment and prevent stream bank erosion, and its evergreen boughs are integral for keeping streams cold enough for trout – hemlock streams average ten degrees cooler than waterways without hemlock. 

The film is 22 minutes long, will be followed by a short Q & A session.

At 7 pm, all are welcome to attend a general meeting of the Iron Furnace Chapter #288 of Trout Unlimited, featuring speaker Ryan Borcz, DCNR park manager for Cook Forest & Clear Creek State Parks, discussing an in-progress stream habitat improvement the chapter is orchestrating in Clear Creek.

Both events are in Room 120 of the Grunenwald Science and Technology Center (STC), Clarion University of Pennsylvania – GPS Address: 909 E Wood St. Clarion PA, 16214. Free parking is available slightly downhill & across the street.

Hosted by the Cook Forest Conservancy, Iron Furnace Chapter #288 of Trout Unlimited, & Clarion University – film courtesy of Wild Excellence Films.

Citizen Scientist Training

Citizen Science Training 2019-10-02

HWA (Hemlock Woolly Adelgid) kills trees – and it’s here.  Invasive plants such as Japanese barberry and tree of heaven are threatening the regeneration of important species, while providing little to no habitat or food for wildlife.  But, with your help, we can protect our valuable old-growth forest.

Join us for Citizen Scientist training to learn about imapinvasives, a free tool that you can use to track infestations. We’ll also show you how to identify the invasive pests and plants – then you just report back data whenever you’re in the field. Together we can keep our forest healthy!

Wednesday, 2 October 2019 – 6 pm >> add event to your google calendar

This Free event is open to all, and is co-sponsored by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History as a project of the Allegheny Forest Health Collaborative.  The Gateway Lodge generously donated meeting space – the address is 14870 PA-36, Cooksburg, PA 16217.  

 

Anthropologie in Cook Forest!

Anthropologie in Cook Forest

Anthropologie supports the hemlocks of Cook Forest State Park

After shooting their fall lighting catalog along lovely Tom’s Run in Cook Forest State Park, Anthropologie decided to get its charity, Philanthropie, involved in saving the hemlock trees that line the stream & do their own important work – protecting the aquatic residents, cleaning our water, and keeping the forest cool and stable.  They’re under assault from hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), a tiny invasive insect, and the CFC and many other entities – the Bureau of Forestry, the USFS, and the DCNR – are cooperating to keep these essential trees healthy.

You can help too!  Please consider donating via the link below, through which all funds raised will go to hemlock preservation, including education, monitoring, and active treatments:

donate securely to the Cook Forest Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Read the entire article here:  https://www.anthropologie.com/stories-community-cook-forest-state-park

Or join the Facebook campaign here: Anthropologie Campaign for Cook Forest Hemlocks

Thank you for your support!

HWA Hemlock Seminar Recap 2019

2019 HWA Seminar recap

A solid group attended this year’s Bureau of Forestry seminar on Hemlock Woolly Adelgid – its life cycle, the dangers it poses and the importance of Eastern (Canadian) Hemlock to our biodiversity, and the currently available treatment options – at the Cook Forest State Park office.  Following the classroom session, we trekked a short distance along beautiful Birch Trail, where Forestry scientists illustrated the soil injection method of tree inoculation, which will protect the treated trees for an estimated seven years. 

Jim Altemus explaining the soil treatment procedure to an attendee

As you may know, many of our ecosystems depend upon hemlock to filter our water and contain our streambanks, shade these streams for trout and the aquatic insects they feed upon, clean our air, and create the singular micro-climate that no other tree can reproduce, and on which many species depend.

You can protect your hemlocks at home:

  • minimize stressors by keeping them watered in droughts and not compacting their soil, and 
  • monitoring them closely for health – watch the crown for thinning, and always check wind-blown limbs for evidence of HWA infestation, as they tend to colonize the top half of the tree.   

View the entire photo gallery here – and please join us next year, as we hope to make the HWA Treatment Seminar an annual event!  The Cook Forest area hemlock are relatively healthy now, and by keeping Pennsylvanians aware and proactive, we can ensure their survival for the good of the woods, waters, and people of the coming decades 🙂

Shagbark Jones admires some hemlocks

HWA Treatment Seminar – 14 Sept 2019

2019-09-14 CFC BOF HWA Seminar Cook Forest

HWA kills trees - Protect your Hemlocks!

Learn more about the threat, and how to treat your own trees.  This event is free to all – held at 2 pm on Saturday, 14 September, 2019, at the new Cook Forest State Park office, 100 Route 36, Cooksburg, PA 16217.  It will follow the member’s picnic and history walk hosted by the Woodland Owners of Clarion-Allegheny Valley.

Join specialists on invasive insects from the PA Bureau of Forestry for information on at-home treatment for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), including:

  • the importance of helmock
  • the reduced cost of treatment (far less than removing dead trees!)
  • different treatment methods, including:
    • overview of available pesticides;
    • which is best for a given situation; and
    • the best seasons for treatments

followed by an on-site session during which attendees can actually apply the treatment – this single application should protect each target hemlock for seven years!

We’ll be walking along Tom’s Run for the field work – please wear long pants and closed shoes; gloves will be provided.  Attendees may be able to loan equipment from the PA Bureau of Forestry for treating their private hemlock stands – more details at the event. 

Download a printable copy of the event PDF here

HWA Treatment Seminar – 26 Sept 2018

HWA Kills Trees, and it is here, in Northwestern PA

Free HWA Treatment Seminar

Learn more about the threat, and how to treat your own trees.  This event is free to all, but space is limited – RSVP kelly @ cookforestconservancy.org, or via facebook, to join specialists on invasive insects for information on at-home treatment for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), including:

  • the importance of helmock
  • the reduced cost of treatment (far less than removing dead trees!)
  • different treatment methods, including:
    • overview of available pesticides, chemical and insect;
    • which is best for a given situation; and
    • the best seasons for treatments

followed by an on-site session during which attendees can actually apply the treatment – this single application will protect each target hemlock for seven years!

RSVP reply will include further details – we’ll be at Shelter #1 off Forest Road (the map should get you close enough to see us!  First right past the park office along Forest Road, before Breezemont and the double turn-offs at the Log Cabin Inn & Longfellow/ Forest Cathedral trailheads).

Download a printable copy of the event PDF here.

Twilight of the Hemlocks & Beeches

Brunch with the author, Tim Palmer
16 September 2018 – Cook Forest

cover of Twilight of the Hemlocks and Beeches by Tim Palmer, a new book published by Penn State University Press.

 

Join the Cook Forest Conservancy for coffee with author Tim Palmer, who’s presenting a slideshow of his lovely photography and research detailing the decline of the Eastern Hemlock and American Beeches, published this month by Penn State University Press — and what we can do to save these stately trees.

This event is free to all who RSVP, though space is limited – please RSVP here:  http://cfc-palmer.rsvpify.com.

“Tim Palmer’s breathtaking photography perfectly captures the magic of Pennsylvania’s state tree, whether seen during a walk through an ancient grove or meandering along many streambanks and waterways in the commonwealth.

His images and prose will inspire us all to work on building resilience for adaptation to the impacts of climate change and to do what we can to save these majestic trees.”

—Cindy Adams Dunn, Secretary, Pennsylvania DCNR

This beautiful hardcover book will be for sale by the author at the event.  Any donations to the Cook Forest Conservancy will directly benefit efforts to preserve the old-growth stands in Cook Forest from the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid.

>> 10 – 11:30 am, Sunday, 16 September, at Pavilion #2 in beautiful Cook Forest State Park, Pennsylvania.  Approx. GPS coordinates = 41°20’50.0″N 79°13’11.2″W