Clemson Extension Upstate District

Hemlock Conservation Expands in the Upstate

Two years ago, a retired US Forest Service ranger named David Hedden entered my office and politely asked if anyone was doing anything to save the hemlock trees in the Upstate. In case you were not aware, there is a tiny insect named the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (HWA) that is threatening the existence of the Eastern and Carolina Hemlocks trees. Prognosis for the trees is not good. Luckily for David, he stumbled into the right place, and the seed was planted to turn concern and passion into actions.

With the help of Clemson Extension, David and his wife Carla recently formed a non-profit organization called Carolina Hemlocks. The goal of Carolina Hemlocks is to bring together governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, private landowners, practitioners,, and other stakeholders to maintain, re-establish and enhance the Hemlock tree population in the South Carolina landscape through outreach, resource sharing, collaboration, and applied learning.

To date, this non-profit has treated close to 1000 private home/landowner trees. Partnering with Clemson Extension, we continually hold educational programs, presentations, and outdoor workshops. Recently, we treated over 500 Hemlocks in the Greenville Watershed. We have also been cleared by several agencies to treat all trees along the SC Foothills Trail.  We have partnered with South Carolina Forestry Commission, USFS, SC State Parks, Foothills Trail Conservancy, Duke Energy, and Greenville Watershed to locate, treat, record, and monitor existing hemlock populations. We have trained and utilized volunteers to help treat hemlock trees.

To keep updated on the latest scientific treatment methods we attend workshops and presentations held by the Tennessee Dept. of Forestry, UGA, Georgia Forestry Commission and often consult with Dr. Elizabeth McCarty,  a current expert in the treatment of HWA.

If you have hemlocks trees, know of trees that need treating, or would like to volunteer to help treat, please contact Carolyn Dawson, Clemson Extension Forestry Agent, at dawson4@clemson.edu.



17 thoughts on “Hemlock Conservation Expands in the Upstate

  1. I have been surfing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any
    interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me.
    In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good
    content as you did, the internet will be much more useful than ever before.

  2. Hi! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues with hackers?

    My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing months of hard work due
    to no data backup. Do you have any methods to protect against hackers?

  3. You really make it appear so easy together with
    your presentation but I find this topic to be actually one thing
    that I believe I would never understand. It kind of feels too complex and
    very huge for me. I am looking forward to your subsequent submit, I’ll try to get the
    grasp of it!

  4. Excellent post. Keep writing such kind of information on your
    page. Im really impressed by your blog.
    Hey there, You have done a great job. I will definitely digg it and in my opinion suggest to my friends.
    I’m confident they’ll be benefited from this website.

  5. What’s up mates, how is the whole thing, and what you wish for to say about this post,
    in my view its genuinely awesome for me.

  6. Unquestionably consider that which you said.
    Your favourite justification appeared to be on the net the easiest thing to be mindful of.
    I say to you, I certainly get irked while folks think about issues that they just do not recognize about.
    You controlled to hit the nail upon the highest and also defined out the whole thing without having side effect , people could
    take a signal. Will probably be back to get
    more. Thanks

  7. Today, while I was at work, my cousin stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a 30 foot
    drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now destroyed
    and she has 83 views. I know this is completely off topic but I had to share it with someone!

  8. I have been browsing online more than 2 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article
    like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all
    web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the net
    will be much more useful than ever before.

  9. I’m extremely inspired together with your writing abilities as well as with
    the layout to your blog. Is that this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
    Anyway keep up the nice high quality writing, it’s uncommon to see a great
    blog like this one nowadays..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *