Hemlock Conservation Areas (HCAs) are discrete areas in forests with a significant or valuable hemlock component where some HWA intervention–either chemical, biological, or both–have taken place. While some HCAs were established a decade or more ago with chemical treatment by state agencies in North Carolina, others have been established since the creation of HRI, and many of the older HCAs have recently been expanded to include additional trees. This means that the health of the hemlocks in these HCAs varies. We are actively evaluating the condition of the trees in established HCAs to inform what additional intervention is needed moving forward.
The sites listed below contain one or more HCA. To date, HRI and our state and non-profit partners have established over 140 HCAs in North Carolina. (North Carolina’s national forests and parks also have a number of HCAs that are being actively managed, but are not listed below.)
List of sites containing HCAs by county
(additional counties containing that site are listed in parentheses)
Alleghany
New River State Park (Ashe)
Stone Mountain State Park (Wilkes)
Ashe
Mt. Jefferson Natural Recreation Area*
Pond Mountain Game Land
Three Top Game Land*
Bluff Mountain and Phoenix Preserves*
Avery
Gill State Forest**
Grandfather Mountain State Park** (Caldwell and Watauga)
Buncombe
NC Arboretum*/**
Christmount Conference Center*/**
Violet Hills Cemetery
Montreat Retreat Association*/**
Town of Montreat**
Sandy Mush Game Land** (Madison)
Burke
South Mountains State Park*
Pisgah Game Land (WRC)-Linville River Tract
Lake James State Park (McDowell)
Caldwell
Tuttle Educational State Forest
Buffalo Cove Game Land*
King’s Creek Research Station (Wilkes)
Cherokee
Valley River Cemetery
Haywood
Lake Logan Conference Center
Henderson
Holmes Educational State Forest
Florence Nature, Hickory Nut Gap Teaching & Research, & Wildcat Rock Preserves*
Green River Game Land** (Polk)
Jackson
EBCI Tribal Reserve-Jenkins Creek
Johnston
Clemmons Ed. State Forest
Macon
Needmore Game Land (Swain)
McDowell
Marion Fish Hatchery
Pisgah Game Land (WRC)-Black Bear Tract
Mitchell
Big Rock Creek Preserve
Polk
Green River Bluffs/Mill Spring Preserve**
Rutherford
Chimney Rock State Park*
South Mountains Game Land*/**
Stokes
Hanging Rock State Park*
Surry
Mitchell River Game Land
Transylvania
DuPont State Forest*/**
Headwaters State Forest**
Gorges State Park
Allison-Deaver House
Wake
Hemlock Bluffs Preserve
Watauga
Valle Crucis Conference Center**
Wilkes
Rendezvous Mountain Educational State Forest
Thurmond-Chatham Game Land
Yancey
Black Mountain Campground Extension**
*Properties include Carolina Hemlock
**Properties where recoveries and/or releases of Laricobius beetles have occurred