Proving that Georgia and Tennessee are not always warring neighbors, a grassroots nature group in Georgia is coming to the aid of Tennesseans who need help saving the region’s Eastern hemlocks from a tiny, non-native and invasive bug.
The group, Save Georgia’s Hemlocks, is mentoring several local Tennessee agencies and enabling them to offer a program of education and charitable service to combat the hemlock woolly adelgid.
“This pest is a serious problem and, without treatment, many trees will die and upset the area they are in,” said Christine Bock, lead horticulturist with the Tennessee Aquarium.
Ms. Bock, foresters and other ecologists have said that, when forest hemlocks die, the streambanks on which they often grow lose shade. That, in turn, raises water temperatures in streams that support trout, which need a certain temperature to survive.
Also lost will be the hemlocks’ dense, year-round shelter where birds take cover as well as shade-loving rhododendron and forest wildflowers living underneath the trees.