- Effort to protect next generation’s trees - NASHVILLE –
Predatory beetles that feed on hemlock woolly adelgids (HWA), an
invasive pest killing swaths of hemlock trees from eastern
Tennessee to the Cumberland Mountains, were released Tuesday at
Martha Sundquist State Forest in Cocke County. The release was
an effort by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of
Forestry (TDF) to protect young eastern hemlock seedlings from
the invasive exotic pest, which is responsible for killing many,
if not most, of the mature hemlocks in the state forest. “Martha
Sundquist State Forest is a good site for these beetles to be
released because there is a healthy population of HWA to sustain
them,” said Douglas Godbee, TDF Forest Health Forester. “We will
monitor these beetles over the next couple of years in hopes
that they will reproduce, become an established population, and
continue to prey on HWA in order to eventually control the HWA
population.” Native to Asia, the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges
tsugae) is a