Catskills, NY   Ron Gonzalez   Jun 21, 2007 11:39 PDT  Hi, I hope you don't mind if I butt in... I was hiking in the Catskill Park last weekend, where the hemlock groves on the mountain slopes haven't yet been impacted that much by the adelgid. But it looks like this is changing. On the way up the Wittenberg from Woodland Valley Campground there are several nice, old growth hemlock stands. They're not terribly large, nor are the trees, as growing conditions are pretty rough in the Catskills. But I love those groves and visit them often. I'd never seen signs of adelgid in there before, but this time it was plain to see that the lowest elevation stands (at approx 1800 ft) are looking dry and defoliated. I turned up lower branches and sure enough, there were the telltale tiny cotton balls at the bases of the needles. Further up, the hemlocks still have nice full foliage, with bright green new growth. The adelgid is beginning its climb up the mountains. The hemlocks' end is near. I was hoping the area's cold winters and severe weather would protect the hemlocks there from the adelgid invasion, but apparently it won't. I'm very sad. - Ron Gonzalez Re: Catskills, NY   Holly Post   Jun 22, 2007 04:47 PDT  It is very sad to hear about the Hemlock in the Catskills being a Catskill resident myself. It is very depressing when driving west on 28 and the mountains look more brown then they should. Last year at this time some of the western Catskill mountains looked totaly brown but I think that was from Gypsy Moths. Re: Catskills, NY   Ron Gonzalez   Jun 22, 2007 06:50 PDT  I'm told that a lot of last July's denuding of the trees was caused by tent caterpillars as well as gypsy moth caterpillars, which has resulted in last summer's and this summer's explosion in the 'flesh fly' population, which breeds in the moths' pupae. I was up on Big Indian and Doubletop this time last year, and the flies were coming at me in droves. They're harmless, but kinda disgusting... It's been a very rough few years for the Catskills, with this spring's late snow/ice storm capping it off. The forest along many of the ridges is in quite a mess, with trees snapped in half almost everywhere above a couple thousand feet. Not so bad on the Burroughs Range, but I hear the Devil's Path and Blackhead Range got hit hard, and I saw a lot of damage along the Pine Hill-West Branch Trail (Big Indian Mt north to Belleayre). Of course, nothing is quite as bad as the adelgid showing up in the higher elevations. The other stuff has been around for awhile, and the maples, etc. have recovered in the past from these things. The hemlocks, on the other hand... - Ron Re: Catskills, NY   Dave Hilfinger   Jun 25, 2007 19:05 PDT  My wife and I spent this past weekend in the Catskills (near Phoenicia more specifically). I noticed along the Pepacton Resevoir a significant reduction in the green foliage of the maples and ashes - what I can only assume to be from the gypsy moths and tent caterpillars. No where else in New York have I seen such a large scale "browning." While hiking on Panther mountain, apparently through old growth forest, I did not see any signs of the adelgid on the hemlocks - they looked green and quite healthy. I was interested to see if I could observe any signs of the adelgid but I apparently missed them around the Pine Hill area! Dave Re: Catskills, NY   Ron Gonzalez   Jun 26, 2007 05:38 PDT  It sure was a beautiful weekend. I'll bet the views from Panther were a real treat with such clear weather. I'm relieved to hear that you didn't see any signs of HWA along the trail to Panther. Did you approach Panther from the south (Giant Ledge) or from the north (Fox Hollow)? Up to this point, I hadn't seen any HWA in the higher elevation hemlock stands in the Catskills, which is why I'm alarmed by its appearance on the way up Wittenberg from Woodland Valley. I was hiking along the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey this past weekend, from High Point south to Culver Gap. The gypsy moths had almost completely denuded many oaks just north of Culver Gap, and all around the Culver Lake area. The caterpillars were on every oak tree and many others as well, including a bunch in a Colorado blue spruce next to a diner in town. -- _____________________________________________________ - Ron Gonzalez   Home