For more than 20 years, conservationists have been fighting a tiny insect killing the region’s hemlock trees. Efforts to protect the trees through insecticide and the deployment of natural predators have been tedious and largely ineffective, and until a better solution is found, a small but determined group of hemlock conservationists is working to protect one tree at a time.
“It’s workable that we can keep them under control, but we can’t stop treating them. That’s the bad news,” said Jimmy Stewart, longtime volunteer for Save Georgia’s Hemlocks, by phone.
Because the hemlock woolly adelgid spreads quickly, it is important to stay diligent, said Jim Wentworth, a board member of Save Georgia’s Hemlocks and a retired wildlife biologist, by phone.
“If it doesn’t have adelgid today, it probably will within the next year or so because it’s so widespread,” Wentworth said.