Treatment Season Accomplishments

We started off the spring treatment season finishing up the extremely dense and hard-to-reach Carolina hemlock stands we had begun treating on top of Cold Mountain last November. That brings the total number of trees treated in that one stand to over 1,300, intentionally leaving an approximately equal number untreated. From there, we traveled near and far to treat hemlocks throughout Western North Carolina, from our western border with Tennessee in the Nantahala National Forest to our northern border with Virginia in Ashe County and everywhere in between.

On the Nantahala National Forest side, one site stood out among the rest, one we call “Whigg Cove.” This was a large project that took our entire 8-person crew 3 full days to finish. We treated 1,464 hemlocks over an area of 84 acres. The treated trees ranged from 1 to 28 inches in diameter, with an average size of 11 inches. This site was special because it was along the ridge that separates North Carolina from Tennessee—we quite literally treated as far west as we could! This site was diverse with a beautiful birch forest of riparian and mountainous areas, and the crew was able to stay at a sweet little cabin called Treetops Lodge, nestled between public forests right off the Tail of the Dragon. (Shout out to Treetops Lodge and to all others who have housed our crew during this season. These hemlocks could not have been treated without your support!)

Many miles away to the northeast in Ashe and Alleghany counties, we were thrilled to return to Mount Jefferson and New River State Park, where we re-treated ~700 hemlocks across 6 separate areas that we had last treated back in 2018. The state park rangers are always a pleasure to work with–Rangers Mac and Baker kept the crew entertained during the treatment days with stories of animal sightings in the park, cookie recipes from Ranger Baker’s popular scat ID program, and tips on backcountry tracking from Ranger Mac. 

The NCFS Forest Health and BRIDGE crews were also working to treat hemlock stands in the northeastern region of the state. Upon re-treating some of the mature hemlock in Rendezvous Mountain State Forest in Wilkes County (first treated in 2018) they found significant regeneration in the understory that they treated along with the larger midstory and canopy trees this spring. “A large portion of the treated trees was understory regeneration that wasn’t here the first time we treated,” said NCFS Forest Health Specialist and project lead, Brian Heath. “It’s encouraging to see this progression in our hemlock stands.” In total, they treated over 4,500 seedlings at Rendezvous this treatment season! They also treated over 700 hemlocks at an important Plant Conservation Preserve in McDowell County.

In addition to our federal and state agency partners, we were lucky to partner with some incredible non-profit organizations this season to treat hemlocks. In total, we teamed up with five different local land trusts (Conserving Carolina, Foothills Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, Highlands Cashiers Land Trust (HCLT), and the Blue Ridge Conservancy) to treat over 1,750 hemlocks on 13 separate preserves in Ashe, Burke, Henderson, Macon, Transylvania, and Watauga counties.

One of these partner projects was extra special—we were honored to be invited to help HCLT and the USDA-FS treat the giant eastern and Carolina hemlocks that make up an old growth hemlock stand in Jackson County. This is a very special site, as it is home to the current champion eastern hemlock – towering at nearly 160 feet tall and nearly 6 feet in diameter. We had the honor of treating this wonderful tree and all its nearby cousins, dozens of which exceeded 30 inches in diameter. Our hope is that they will be able to continue to provide their many ecosystem services for decades to come.

Our partnership with HCLT also led us to The Mountain Retreat and Learning Center in Highlands, NC that generously provided our crew with food and board while we were working in the area and hosted us for an HWA Management Workshop (sponsored in part by a grant from another nearby non-profit organization called Mountain Findings). Despite inclement weather forcing us to cancel and reschedule three times, we finally were able to do it and had an incredible turn out! We are so happy to see our hard work reaching so many.

The warmer weather allowed us to hold two successful PHHAT days in May. Hemlocks perform many necessary ecological functions when they grow along rivers and streams. However, many riverside stands are hard to access. Our daring PHHAT volunteers accompanied us in kayaks down the upper Green River in Henderson County, braving class 3+ rapids to help us treat 132 hemlock trees that could not be accessed over land.

Though our existing Hemlock Conservation Area (HCA) Phase 2 re-treatments kept us busy this spring, we found time to create and treat 11 new HCAs across WNC! One notable new area was the Wilson Creek Game Land in Caldwell County. Working in the Wilson Creek area has been a goal for HRI Director, Margot Wallston, for years, but the pandemic and other obstacles always kept it just out of reach. We were determined to finally get there this season, especially after observing substantial decline in stand health since our previous visit. This new treatment area was started just in the nick of time, at the end of our spring season when temperatures were already starting to push into the 80s, making for some very sweaty and poison-ivy-filled days. Many of these riverside trees required a special chemical application method to minimize the risk of insecticide reaching the water, which is a much slower process than our typical soil drench applications. Luckily, the crew was able to cool off while crossing the waist-deep creek to access over 300 hemlocks that badly needed to be treated. We’ll be going back next season to treat hundreds more hemlocks that provide necessary shade for the wild populations of rainbow, brown, and brook trout that Wilson Creek is known for.

The above represents only a few of the Hemlock Conservation Areas and other awesome places where we were fortunate to work during the first half of 2024. Likewise, we had several different volunteer days where we got to work alongside some incredible environmental stewards and tree huggers, some of whom we were meeting for the first time and some of whom are familiar and welcome faces from the past. We are currently planning out our list of projects and treatment sites for the fall and expect to have some great opportunities for volunteer help and many more stories to share afterwards.

Interview with Greg Wiggins of the

Beneficial Insects Lab

Greg Wiggins is the Biological Control Administrator for the Beneficial Insects Lab in Cary, North Carolina. The Beneficial Insects Lab is part of the Biological Control Services of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS). Biological Control Services implements and maintains biological control programs to benefit the residents and the environment of the state of NC.

HRI Outreach Manager, Caroline Lord interviewed Wiggins for the Winter 2024 newsletter where they discussed protocols at the lab and the Laricobious osakensis beetle. This interview picks up where that one left off with updates on the Laricobious osakensis and more. In the upcoming Winter Newsletter, we’ll include Part III of our interview with Wiggins including topics such as two predator species of silver fly and eDNA. 

Do you have any updates on Laricobius osakensis?

We’ve continued rearing our lab colony, and we have a successful colony being maintained. So far we’ve had over 2000 larvae drop from foliage that we have in soil cups, and we’ll be holding those soil cups in growth chambers and monitoring them into the fall to see how many adult beetles emerge. We’ll use those beetles from this colony for releases at our study sites, and if we have more, then we can share them with HRI, the US Forest Service or NC Forest Service to use or make releases as they need.

How many Hemlock Conservation Areas is the Beneficial Insects Lab currently working in?

We’re working in several different areas in Western North Carolina, such as Bent Creek and Dupont State Forest, and we also have predator releases near Grandfather Mountain.* We’re working with the state forest service to set up a couple of hemlock field nurseries to use as study sites and field insectaries for Laricobius osakensis. One of those is in a forest with a naturally occurring canopy gap and another one is a more conventional type of nursery setting where the trees were planted in an open field setting and allowed plenty of light to grow.

 *NOTE: In addition to the above, HRI has worked with the Beneficial Insect Lab to release Laricobius beetles in several state, county, and privately conserved stands throughout hemlocks’ native range in NC. HRI routinely surveys these stands among other sites to monitor for establishment.

Sometimes on our HRI hikes, people ask if it is safe to release beetles into the forests. How would you describe the difference between an invasive species and a species introduced for use as a biological control?

You hear a lot about invasive species from other countries growing out of control in a new area. It makes sense to be wary of species that we’re bringing in from another country, and a lot of invasive species are accidentally introduced. People don’t know they’re going to be a problem until they start becoming problems. It’s the opposite case with biological control. Before a biological control agent from another country can be released in the United States, the control agent is deliberately selected, heavily tested and reviewed by a panel of experts to see if the testing was rigorous enough. The process goes from host testing, submitting it for approval, possibly receiving suggestions for how to further test it, doing that testing, and submitting it for approval again. Before it’s approved, the documentation also is open to the public for a period of comment to see if there are any significant comments that could sway the decision of whether or not to approve it for release. So between exploration of natural enemies for an invasive pest, and the testing and approval stages, the process can take about ten years on average.

Was that the exact process for the Laricobius beetle?

Laricobius was no exception, in that it was tested and found to require hemlock woolly adelgid to develop. In actuality, Laricobius nigrinus is a species of beetle that was already in the United States prior to being approved for use as a biological control agent. It was found in the Pacific Northwest, and it was moved from the Western to the Eastern United States as a predator of hemlock woolly adelgid, because hemlock woolly adelgid is also found in the Western United States. But Laricobius nigrinus had a sister species in Japan, Laricobius osakensis, which was more co-evolved with the strain of the hemlock woolly adelgid we have here in the U.S.. That’s why a new effort has been put forth to rear, release and establish Laricobius osakensis because that species feeds on the hemlock woolly adelgid in Japan where our adelgids originated. We’re trying to reestablish that predator prey interaction that’s present in its native range to this new introduced range.

Enhanced Forest Insectary Sites

AmeriCorps member Landon Lemmens performed his service term with HRI while also working on his Master’s at Western Colorado University. You can read about his Master’s project involving enhanced insectary sites below. Here is a link to his GIS StoryMap about the project.

In 2023, Western Colorado University’s Master’s of Environmental Management program prompted me to coordinate with a local community group of my choosing, where I would create a physical deliverable that would, in some way, improve the sponsor group for the better. I chose to work with the Hemlock Restoration Initiative in Asheville, NC as I had an innate, keen interest in eastern hemlocks and the ecological functions they provide to their ecosystem. Upon the start of my AmeriCorps position in September of 2023, I embarked on a journey to create a collection of living documents that could be used by the Hemlock Restoration Initiative and land managers across the region in creating enhanced forest insectaries for predators of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA).

The project’s goal was to create documentation for creating enhanced habitats in forested settings, or what we are calling ‘forest insectaries,’ for biological control agents, such as Laricobius beetles, that have been released for the ongoing suppression of HWA. The idea of an ‘enhanced insectary’ refers to an intention to alter or modify an existing hemlock stand in order to better support biological control agents.

From the conception of the project, HRI’s Thom Green and I set out across several areas in two NC State Forests to scout for hemlock sites that could serve as productive forest insectaries if modified or altered in certain, specific ways–the primary modifications envisioned include removing some of the mid-story and canopy trees currently shading the understory, allowing more light to reach naturally regenerating hemlock seedlings in the understory. Areas with many small hemlocks can make good insectaries because they both provide lots of habitat for the HWA predators and also allow land managers to monitor for and collect predators if desired.

My initial site assessments were guided by a series of questions that I created and compiled in the form of a checklist. The checklist covers factors that are influential in creating enhanced insectaries such as the abundance of hemlocks at the site, the accessibility of the site, the amount of new growth on the trees, and the amount of sunlight the trees are already receiving. These characteristics are important as insectaries should provide good conditions for HWA and the biological control agents and should be accessible by managers to return to the site and monitor for adelgid predators.

Upon answering these questions, the sites were then ranked from most to least suitable for creating enhanced insectaries. The most desirable sites ended up being those with high hemlock density, especially those that had low, accessible branches with lots of new growth and adelgid settlement. Desirable sites were also notable for being easily accessible while having ample existing light reaching the hemlocks. A unique site in Western NC located in DuPont State Recreational Forest checked off all the boxes for being a potential insectary site. The site has loads of regenerating hemlocks in a pretty healthy state with an ample amount of adelgid to support predators.

Upon ranking the sites, I then started the process of creating a prescription template that would include the managerial information needed before going into a site to cut trees, clear debris, treat trees with insecticide or herbicide, or any other forms of management. The prescription document consists of critical information like the level of light the hemlocks are already receiving, health and quantity of existing overstory hemlocks, site forest composition, terrain and accessibility, and management recommendations. It was fun to see the template become formal and inclusive, combining all of my ideas of what makes an insectary an insectary. Ideally, the prescription plan template will be disseminated to land managers across the region as well as being used internally by HRI to assess future hemlock sites for establishing enhanced insectaries. Creating this sort of documentation will be important in allowing future insectaries to be compared based on their success in rearing biological control agents or their failures.

Next came the fun part: boots-on-the-ground site assessments. As we assessed sites across Dupont State Recreational Forest and Headwaters State Forest, we found that some sites were littered with upwards of 300 regenerating hemlocks growing in dense patches just waiting for an opening in the canopy. With the knowledge we have regarding the impact that sunlight can have on hemlocks, adelgids, and biological control agents such as Laricobius beetles, I was quick to type up draft prescriptions for our top locations. 

In April, I presented the information about one of the sites, the process I went through, and the documents I produced to land managers and stakeholders in the form of a tour at one of the DuPont sites. Under the direction of the state forest managers, this and other sites might come to fruition as actual insectaries for HWA predators. My hope is that these insectaries will aid in increasing the successful establishment of HWA biological control agents within our state’s forestland and eventually serve as a great additional tool in the efforts to keep hemlocks serving their foundational role within WNC forests.

UPDATE: In June, some of Landon’s project did indeed come to fruition when DuPont State Forest Management Forester, Jordan Luff, led a team of NCFS Forest Health summer interns and a couple HRI staff to begin implementation of the silvicultural release work at the site of the April tour. The unique prescription he carried out was based on Landon’s concept with additional input from NCFS Forest Health specialists. The work, which lasted 2 days, involved selecting some of the non-hemlock midstory and overstory trees for hack and squirt treatments and then clearing out some of the competing understory around the regenerating hemlocks. Luff had this to say after this initial phase of the project was completed: “[We] were immediately taken aback by the visual results of the understory clearing…, which has immediately released the hemlock regen from competition. I am immensely pleased with the results so far, and look forward to monitoring the ensuing effects of the treatment.” So are we at HRI!

Thank you: Thom Green

After seven wonderful years, Thom Green, our jack-of-all-trades, is leaving HRI to move to Durham, NC, where his wife is starting a new job in July. Since joining HRI in 2017, Thom has worn many important hats at our non-profit including: Americorps Stewardship and Volunteer Engagement Associate, Lead Technician, Outreach Manager, and most recently, National Forests Treatment Coordinator. But most people probably know Thom as the guy who sends out all the emails and the HRI representative most likely to call you back and answer all your questions. That is because for the last four years, Thom’s secondary title has been that of Landowner Education, Support and Technical Assistant. He would frequently spend half an hour or more on the phone with any and everyone who called our office, actively listening to individuals’ concerns about their specific trees and thoughtfully responding to each question, and then directing people to the most useful resources either on our website or elsewhere in a follow-up email.

What you may not know is that Thom also took time after each conversation to record notes about the individual’s specific situation and questions so that we would remember them and be able to better support them should they need it in the future. Thom took an equal amount of care to prepare each workshop, demonstration, and powerpoint he was responsible for presenting. Even though the content was often mostly the same, he would carefully review it beforehand and tweak it to be sure he and his co-presenters delivered the information in the most effective and accessible way. When possible, he would tailor the content to the specific audience he was working with and afterwards make adjustments based on the feedback received. Being the longest-serving and only full-time staff member at HRI, other than Margot, and therefore one of the most versatile, Thom has been one of the primary staff members training and supporting new incoming team members.

Thom took his role as an AmeriCorps host site supervisor very seriously and worked hard to improve the members’ onboarding and training experience during their first weeks with HRI, as well as throughout the year. Thom had a caring and positive nature which made everyone at HRI and WNC Communities feel comfortable. What follows is some of what his team members had to say about him…

Thom was a thoughtful coworker, always checking-in and asking how everyone was doing. While teaching and training new staff, he was patient and generous with his time and he never minded explaining the same task several times if needed. At the start of an AmeriCorps term, one team member remembers there was a ‘get to know you’ activity about the members’ favorite snacks. Thom not only remembered what the favorite snacks were, but surprised the members by bringing the very same snacks to their first weekend event working together.

His confident presence at field days lifted crew morale. He stayed upbeat throughout the many full and strenuous work days and was always willing to build and keep the campfire going at night during our multi-day camping treatment trips. Once when a crew member was nervous about crossing a river, Thom cheerfully went out in the cold, thigh-deep water in order to find the shallowest spot to cross. Another crew member noted that he had a quirky habit when traversing through the woods of going directly through rhododendron and other understory instead of going around or over them–he epitomized the term “bush-whacking.” 

Thom is dedicated to scientific inquiry and critical exploration of topics both central to hemlock restoration, as well as adjacent themes of forest health and environmental conservation. At HRI and WNC Communities meetings, his opinions and perspective when problem-solving and brainstorming were greatly valued. Given his interesting and curious mind, it was a treat to share a lunch break with Thom because the topic could meander from philosophy to the most fun game at the local Well Played Cafe.

Thom says that he has enjoyed his years with HRI and all the good he’s “been able to do for the hemlocks, the forests, and the people of Western North Carolina.” He particularly appreciated the program’s commitment to science-informed management and enthusiastically embraced opportunities to support and facilitate research conducted by student interns and HRI’s professional partners. Thom added that he is grateful for all that he has learned and proud of all he has accomplished in his time with our program, and he will “greatly miss the HRI family of partners, volunteers, supporters, and especially staff.”

We are going to miss lots of things about Thom, as well, such as his great (and sometimes sarcastic) sense of humor, his hearty laugh, his giant brain, and his kind heart. It has been a huge gift and privilege to have had so much of his time, energy and attention directed towards the HRI program over the past seven years. We wish Thom the best of luck in his new chapter in life and we can’t wait to see what interesting thing he does next. If you would like to stay in touch with Thom, please send an email to director@savehemlocksnc.org and we will forward it to him.

Volunteer Spotlight: Wesley Sawyer

The Hemlock Restoration Initiative could not do what we do without the help of our hard-working volunteers. Each newsletter we like to highlight the contributions of our volunteers. In this issue we would like to recognize Wesley Sawyer.

After retiring from their careers in California, Wesley Sawyer and her husband wanted to live near the mountains. In 2017, while still looking for the right place to move to, Wesley and her husband were driving one day near Linville Falls and stopped at a North Carolina ranger station. Her husband, knowing that she loved to hike, came back out with a map of Pisgah National Forest and handed it to her and said, “If we move here, you will have a whole bunch of new trails to explore.” 

While living in the Bay Area in California, Wesley had become a certified California naturalist and volunteered as a docent at the Midpeninsula Openspace preserves where she led hikes, her favorite one being along the San Andreas fault. Once in North Carolina, she took courses at the NC Arboretum and became a certified Blue Ridge Naturalist. While volunteering as a docent at the Arboretum, she learned about HRI. 

Since her first HRI volunteer event in 2019 where she helped treat hemlocks at the Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area, she’s volunteered on half a dozen more treatment days at Hemlock Conservation Areas in Pisgah National Forest as well as at two Foothills Conservancy Preserves. Wesley especially liked the Carolina Hemlocks site. “The biggest and best hemlocks I’ve seen since I’ve been here are in that location. There are some huge hemlocks there,” she says.

She says that she is always impressed with the HRI volunteer workdays. “They are well organized. They pair people up. It’s one volunteer or two volunteers and one staff person from HRI. I usually get paired up with a different person every time so I can talk to the staff members and get to know them,” she says.

Wesley has also helped with an HRI day with the Forest Restoration Alliance (FRA), a resistance screening and breeding program based in Waynesville. On the day Wesley volunteered, she remembers that they counted adelgids on one to two foot high hemlocks with a magnifying glass. “Then we broke off and were sorting out and measuring the different varieties of hemlocks, and we cleaned pots to be reused. It was an interesting day,” she says. At these events, she especially “enjoys working with the young people and the AmeriCorps members. It’s fascinating to hear their stories. They are so excited to be starting off in environmental science studies and careers. It’s great.” 

At home at Lake James, Wesley noticed that many hemlocks were infested with hemlock woolly adelgid. Since she’d learned how to treat hemlocks through HRI, she wrote to her neighbors telling them that their hemlocks probably needed to be treated. Wesley offered to take a look at the trees, and she got a great response. She says she helped her neighbors treat over 100 hemlocks near their homes and on the communal trails in her development. 

Wesley is a welcome participant on HRI volunteer days–she is always up to do whatever needs to be done and is easy to work alongside. In addition to helping HRI, this year Wesley was the Bald Eagle Nest Monitoring coordinator for Lake James Environmental Association where she and other volunteers monitored one active nest from January to May and searched around the lake looking for other nests. She also volunteers with the Foothills Conservancy in Morganton and at the Arboretum leading guided trail walks. We admire her commitment to being a good steward to the earth, both in her immediate community and beyond. We at HRI are fortunate that Wesley has elected to include saving the hemlocks as one of her many endeavors, and we are grateful for her ongoing support and involvement over the years. 

Conservation Connection Corner: Sterling Schermerhorn

Sterling Schermerhorn first became familiar with old growth hemlocks as a through-hiker on the Appalachian Trail in the Smokies in the 1980s. After moving to the Christmount property in Black Mountain, a 600-acre retreat center and residential neighborhood with over 90 homesites, Sterling watched the beautiful old growth hemlocks at the entrance to the neighborhood become infested with the initial wave of the hemlock woolly adelgid in the 1990s.

Sterling said he first heard about HRI five or six years ago when someone mentioned our name. “I went ‘HRI?! What is that?’ And ever since I’ve been consulting with Margot and Thom. Sometimes on a weekly basis for a while.”

In order to gain more in-depth knowledge on how to treat hemlocks, Sterling attended HRI Treatment Workshops at Christmount and Lake Logan Conference Center and participated in a few HRI hemlock volunteer treatment days. In 2023, he returned to re-treat the hard-to-reach Carolina hemlock bluff he had tried to protect so many years prior with a few HRI forestry technicians.

Over the course of three days, Sterling, the HRI crew, and a few other volunteers from the community treated hemlocks at a few easier-to-reach sites near the guest lodges. To reach the other hemlocks, they drove up a mountain utility road and bushwhacked down the bluff. Sterling and HRI got two-thirds treated, and he finished treating the other third on his own which he soon found out happened to be the hemlocks on the lower and steeper slopes.

“They thought they were in a steep area. They didn’t see anything until they saw the lower one third where I worked. But we got pretty good coverage.” In addition to HRI, the Christmount sustainability staff helped Sterling by taking over some of the data tracking. They’ve since inventoried most of the hemlocks on the Christmount campus so they can continue to manage and monitor the trees’ health over time. Sterling says that a few years ago they “planted about one hundred Carolina hemlock seedlings from the [NC Forest Service] Linville nursery up on the Carolina hemlock bluff. We’re trying to monitor and get good GPS coordinates for those trees.” Sterling continues to call us to report on the health status of the many hemlocks at Christmount and to offer his suggestions and assistance in order to ensure the trees he’s worked so hard to restore remain healthy. HRI is extremely grateful that he and others like him are keeping a careful watch on the hemlocks in their ‘backyard’ because we could never get around to every one of our hemlock conservation areas with enough regularity to notice changes from year to year.