State Considers Hemlock Protection

The State of Michigan is gearing up to fight yet another invasive insect. The hemlock wooly adelgid is an Asian import that was first noted in Virginia in the early 1950s. It lays eggs in white sacs on the tree’s needles. It eventually kills the tree by eating its sap, and injecting a toxin into the tree. Hemlock forests from Georgia to Massachusetts have been decimated, and now, adelgid infestations have been discovered for the first time in Michigan. At this time, the affected area is limited to three counties in southwestern Michigan – Allegan, Ottawa and Muskegon. With more than 170 million hemlock trees in Michigan forests at risk, the state is considering a quarantine of those counties. If you would like to learn more about the issue, or submit comments, use the contact information below, which was provided by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development:

All comments must be received by MDARD no later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 6, 2017. Comments may be sent electronically to bryanm@michigan.gov. Comments submitted in hard copy form can be sent to the address below:

Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division
P.O. Box 30017
Lansing, MI 48909

For more information on HWA, visit www.michigan.gov/HWA or www.michigan.gov/invasivespecies. For more information on the proposed interior quarantine, contact Mike Bryan, Plant Industry Specialist, at 517-284-5648.