| Douglas
Falls? |
James
Smith |
| Jul
01, 2007 11:37 PDT |
Does anyone know if some of the grove of old hemlocks along the
Douglas
Falls Trail (off the Blue Ridge Parkway below Craggy Pinnacle)
have been
treated with imadacloprid? I ask this because when I visited
there a few
months ago, the trees seemed to be in pretty good health. One
hiking
friend told me that he's seen a marked improvement in the
appearance of
the hemlocks there. This makes me suspect that the trees (at
least the
ones closest to the trail) have been treated. Having seen the
sorry
state of the hemlocks just a few miles away (in some cases just
a few
hundred yards away), I'm suspicious.
At any rate, perhaps there should be some way of posting a list
of areas
that have been treated so that others don't go and repeat
treatment. |
| RE:
Douglas Falls? |
Joshua
Kelly |
| Jul
02, 2007 21:17 PDT |
James,
there was a release of Psasajiscymnus tsugae (sp.?) there for
the past two
years. I have asked Linda Randolph, the responsible official, to
consider
treating at Douglas and Walker Falls with Zenith, and her reply
was, "We
already did a beetle release". Hopefully, if enough folks
call Pisgah
National Forest and demand that at least a small grove be
treated
chemically, just in case (since predator beetles haven't worked
yet), the
Forest Service will preserve some of that amazing grove.
As an aside: I came across a grove of hemlocks at Shinbone Creek
in
Mitchell County last week that has trees that rival those at
Douglas Falls.
The overall forest is not as impressive, but individuals are.
This grove is
also in good shape and deserves at least a beetle release.
Just back from some killer Rhodo surfing at Raven Fork,
Josh
|
| RE:
Douglas Falls? |
Will
Blozan |
| Jul
03, 2007 06:30 PDT |
Josh and ENTS,
Quality Forward, an organization here in Asheville concerned
with
environmental issues and particularly HWA, contacted the USFS
with chemical
and volunteers in hand to treat parts of Douglas Falls. Their
efforts were
refused due to the "success" of the beetles. When
asked for results of a
survey or study regarding the beetles, the response was
something like,
"Look for yourself".
Will
|
| RE:
Douglas Falls? |
James
Smith |
| Jul
03, 2007 17:08 PDT |
I have to say, from looking at the grove myself...the trees
looked
pretty healthy a few months ago. I haven't seen them this
summer,
though. And one friend who does frequent the area tells me that
he has
seen a marked improvement in the grove, with new growth and more
needles.
My own suspicion is that some enterprising folk have visited the
grove
and treated the hemlocks with imadacloprid.
|
| RE:
Douglas Falls? |
hinto-@comcast.net |
| Jul
03, 2007 18:30 PDT |
The trees look better? Hmmm. Very interesting. They must have
used those new OTT beetles. The FS people must be gloating over
their apparent success.
Chuck |
| Re:
Douglas Falls? |
Edward
Frank |
| Jul
06, 2007 01:27 PDT |
ENTS,
If the Forest Service is having success with beetle releases,
then we should
all be happy. What I have seen however is that the populations
of the
predatory insects decrease dramatically from one year to the
next. In most
cases there is no examples found from the previous years release
the
following year. If the predatory beetle in this case can
maintain its
population numbers the following year and spread to nearby
groves, Great!
We will need to wait and see.
Ed Frank
|
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