The site was prepared and rows laid out with pin flags before planting.
We are incredibly thankful for Boy Scout Troop 91 here in Asheville, NC for helping us plant the last section of our hemlock insectary! Bud, Ivy, Julia, and I had a blast talking conservation and planting trees.
Bud and Bryan gave a quick tree planting primer, then we all got right to work.
All 88 seedlings planted and watered in!
Hemlock woolly adelgid is an introduced invasive pest killing eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) trees throughout the Eastern U.S. Predator beetles, such as Laricobius nigrinus, have shown promise in curbing adelgid infestation rates and increasing the lifespan of individual hemlock trees. A limiting factor with this method is the availability of beetles.
One of the novel ideas Dr. Bud Mayfield has been working on is to establish an insectary where predators of the adelgid can be released and then actually cultivated. The sooner we can get trees established, the sooner they will be infested with adelgid and the sooner we can grow populations of predators that can be released elsewhere.
Another hard day's work.
