Hemlock stand in The Tusket ravaged by wooly adelgid
This a.m. I picked up a soggy letter from L&F containing the Winter 2018 ed. of Woodland Owner, a 4-page newsletter celebrating the Woodland Owner of the Year Awards (of which I am a big fan).
Page 4 contained a shock: a map of Positive Sites for Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, aka the Hemlock Vampires, in SW Nova Scotia. I couldn’t find it online (the last issue posted is for 2015), so here is the image that shocked me, click on it to bring up an image of Page 4:
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. “Their name comes from waxy white filaments they make to protect themselves from drying out. In a heavy infestation, hemlock trees can look gray from all the “wool” on twigs and branches. They can’t fly, but are spread by wind and also hitch rides on the feet of birds, which can carry hemlock wooly adelgids for long distances. These “hemlock vampires” were first discovered in 1951 in Virginia, and by 2005 had spread to fifteen other states.
Source: Paul Hetzler, Cornell Cooperative Extension
Photo source: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Bugwood.org
One has to wonder… how all of this trucking deregulation and the focus on SW Nova Scotia as our remaining wood or fiber/fibre basket could NOT accelerate spread of these vampires across the province.
Obviously there is no rejoicing in recognizing yet another good reason why the rush to cut SW Nova Scotia is ill-advised, even if we were to stop the rush because of The Vampires.
Apologies, Cellufuel & Co , but like climate warming this is not just scare-mongering by “the left”.
There’s more wood in the province than ever before, but there is a strong lobby from the left of the spectrum pushing for some of the most prohibitive restrictions in the country…there’s large sections of the forest that are completely inactive…there’s no problem with fibre supply in Nova Scotia, it’s more commercial and/or public policy that’s restricting its flow to the market. – From allnovascotia.com July 27, 2017