Saving the Hemlocks – Protecting the forests that protect so much more
The Eastern Hemlock is one of the most important trees in the forests of the Long Point Basin. These evergreens create cool, shaded forest environments that provide habitat for wildlife, protect streams, and support a remarkable diversity of life. But these forests face a growing threat. Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) is spreading through Southwestern Ontario, putting mature Hemlocks at risk.
The Long Point Basin Land Trust is working to protect some of largest recorded Eastern Hemlocks in Canada, located on our nature reserves, and we need your help.
A Growing Threat to Our Hemlocks: Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is a small, invasive insect that feeds on Eastern Hemlock. It attaches itself to the base of hemlock needles and draws nutrients and water from the tree. The signs can be easy to miss at first: small, white masses appearing along the branches. Infested trees will gradually lose needles and branches, become increasingly weakened, and will eventually kill even the largest of trees.
HWA originated from Asia, and was introduced to North America in 1924. Before the 1980s, it was relatively confined to the Eastern United States, confined to parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Since then however, its range has increased dramatically into the broader range of the Eastern Hemlock, with affected tracts of forests going as far north as Nova Scotia, and as far south as South Carolina. HWA was first detected in parts of Ontario in 2012, and since then has only continued to spread. HWA spreads through both natural factors, such as on birds, animals, and the wind, but also through humans moving infected firewood, tree saplings and even on muddy shoes.
HWA’s impacts extend far beyond individual trees. The loss of mature Eastern Hemlocks can fundamentally change the forests and ecosystems they help create. As the range of HWA expands, previously unaffected hemlock forests are increasingly at risk. The Long Point Basin contains exceptionally diverse forests, and protecting the hemlocks within this landscape is an important part of protecting the biodiversity that depends on them.
What Can Be Done? We can act before it’s too late.
Unfortunately, there is currently no practical way to eliminate HWA entirely from the landscape. Recently tests have been conducted to introduce a biological control, an additional harmless predatory beetle that would feed on HWA to cull the spread of the damaging invasive adelgid. The prospects are primarily positive, with beetles being brought in from the Pacific North-West. However the biocontrol is not adapted to survive the eastern colder winters. Similar biocontrols in the past have been used in Canada to treat other invasive species, such as purple loosestrife, and recently invasive phragmites. Click here to read more about the method of biocontrols for combatting HWA. Alongside these methods, there have also been interim non-permanent treatments developed and used to protect individual trees.
For priority trees on LPBLT’s nature reserves, we plan to use the latest treatment techniques which are best suited to sensitive conservation lands.
These treatments can suppress HWA populations on individual Hemlocks, allowing healthy trees to continue growing and providing habitat while longer-term approaches to managing the pest are developed. This gives us an opportunity to protect some of the largest and most ecologically important hemlocks on LPBLT’s nature reserves.
Our $8,000 fundraising goal will help us establish the capacity to treat priority hemlocks now, and extend that work to additional trees as HWA is identified across our properties.
Your support can help keep these trees standing.
More Than a Tree. Eastern Hemlocks are a foundation species.
Eastern Hemlocks are much more than just another tree in the forest. Their dense canopy provides shade year-round, helping to maintain cool, moist conditions on the forest floor and around streams. This creates habitat and microclimates that benefit a wide variety of plants, animals and other organisms. Hemlocks shape the environment around them.
When a mature hemlock dies, it’s not as simple as losing one tree. We also lose the habitat and ecological relationships that the tree helped to create.
With that being said, there are a lot of species that depend on hemlock forests. Among the wildlife associated with mature hemlock forests are a large number of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
