from the Lumpkin Coalition (Ed. Note: Lumpkin Coalition is a non-profit organization in Lumpkin County.) Our forests are threatened with the loss of our native hemlocks, eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and Carolina hemlock (T. caroliniana). They are being decimated by the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), a tiny, aphid-like insect accidentally introduced to the east coast from Asia in the 1950s. The HWA attaches to the stems at the base of the needles making an incision and draining the tree of its sap. The tree often dies within just a few years. The devastation from this tiny parasite has spread from Virginia, north to Maine, and then south to Georgia. Infestations of the HWA have already reached Rabun, Towns, Habersham, Union, White, Fannin, Whitfield, and Lumpkin Counties and are traveling fast. If nothing is done to combat HWA, more than 80 percent of our hemlocks may die in the next six…
