The Medway Community Forest Co-op is hosting an event this Saturday to educate community members on the invasive species known as the wooly hemlock adelgid.
Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) is an invasive, aphid-like insect native to eastern Asia and the Pacific Northwest. HWA was first reported in Canada in British Columbia in the 1920s, and it was detected in Southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017. The first Eastern North American detection was in Richmond Virginia USA in 1951, on an ornamental hemlock from Asia.It is not known at this time how HWA came into Canada, and the exact source will be difficult to determine. Dispersal of HWA occurs by wind, storms, hurricanes, birds, animals, and human movement of nursery stock, logs, and other wood products, including firewood.
The event is taking place at the Wentzell Lake Provincial Park from 1-4 p.m. Seminars will provide information on how to identify hemlock trees and if they’re infected, treatment options, and more.
Tom Rogers is helping plan the event and says the importance of doing something now to prevent further spread cannot be understated, “Some of the first trees infected we’re now seeing die and we’ve continued to see spread across Southwest Nova Scotia, so it’s important people in the area known what we are dealing with and what can be done,”.
Rogers says the spread of the Adelgid has been isolated to the Southern half of the province so far, with a stretch between Chester and Windsor serving as a marker to how far north they’ve made it.
The event this weekend is free to attend.
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