Returning NC's Hemlocks to Long-Term Health
In collaboration with partners: Transylvania County Cooperative Extension Service, Transylvania County Natural Resource Council, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and the Hemlock Restoration Initiative, Transylvania County is launching a program which will assist private land owners by providing a 50% match for…
In the first year of the program, HRI Coordinator Margot Wallston, worked with a team of advisors to identify the most important remaining eastern and Carolina hemlock stands in Buncombe County and assess their appropriateness for receiving biological controls. …
While out hiking in the Smokies, Buncombe County Commissioner Brownie Newman was struck by the number of hemlocks he saw that had been destroyed by the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Newman understood that the loss of hemlocks affected by HWA…
Thanks to a cooperative effort between the Hemlock Restoration Initiative and the USFS, Buncombe County is the first to receive this new, promising predator. First brought to the US in 2006, Laricobius osakensis beetles endured four years of rigorous testing…