PAW PAW, Mich. — Along Michigan’s West Coast, partners are working to stop a dangerous new invasive forest pest: the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. Often called “HWA” this tiny bug can have big impacts, killing towering hemlock trees in just a few years.
Hemlock woolly adelgids are hard to see with the naked eye, but they create white, woolly balls at the base of hemlock needles on the undersides of branches. The adelgids suck sap from the tree, and if untreated, this can lead to a tree’s death within four to 10 years after infestation.
“Hemlocks are a super important part of our landscape,” says Nor Serocki, Coordinator for the Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, or CISMA, which is looking for signs of HWA in Van Buren and Berrien counties. Hemlocks are evergreen trees with very dense branches. They grow in wetter places, keeping our fishing streams cold and providing areas for our deer to keep warm in the winter. “There’s no doubt that Michigan’s forests would look different without our 170 million hemlocks,” Serocki says. “It’s not something that I want to see.”
HWA was found established in Michigan in 2016, though it’s been in the United States for more than 50 years. Originally brought into the USA on nursery stock from Japan, the bug is so small it can be moved by people and vehicles brushing against infected trees, or even by birds landing on an infected branch and then flying to another.
According to Shaun Howard of The Nature Conservancy, “The Michigan Departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture and Rural Development have confirmed hemlock woolly adelgid infestations in Allegan, Muskegon, Oceana and Ottawa counties. With the help of The Nature Conservancy and local CISMAs, a coordinated survey effort of the surrounding counties is underway to determine the full extent of the infestation.”
Though HWA may easily move through our forests, we also know how to stop it, and we still have a good chance to catch it here in Michigan. “Like all invasive species, we have a better chance of stopping this bug if we catch it soon. That’s why we’re making such an effort to survey the places at risk,” Serocki says.
These surveys are a huge effort, stretching from the Mackinaw Bridge down the Lake Michigan coast to the Indiana border. Partners are getting out into the woods in the dead of winter to check hemlock trees. With support from the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program, The Nature Conservancy is funding CISMAs to get out in the field, flip branches, and look for the bug.
“There isn’t a short cut, and the surveys have to be done in the winter when HWA is most visible. Finding and managing HWA now is the best shot we have at protecting this important resource,” says Serocki. HWA mainly has been found along the very edge of the Lake Michigan coast, where the water keeps the shore a little warmer than the inland. Because of this, surveys are concentrating on the first five miles from the water. Even in this thin strip, there are thousands of individual landowners, municipalities, parks, and here in southwest Michigan, even nuclear power plants.
Accompanied by plant staff, a SW x SW Corner CISMA crew was able to survey dunes around the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant and the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in early February of this year. “We’re lucky to have been able to get our crews out to the Cook and Palisades plants right away. Working with staff there, we were able to check these large, important swaths of our coastline right off the bat,” said Serocki.
Blaire Zordell, Senior Environmental Specialist for American Electric Power (AEP), said “We were happy to help with the project. American Electric Power and the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant continue to support both habitat preservation and restoration in our service areas from Michigan all the way to Texas, Ohio, West Virginia Indiana and Kentucky. The majority of our site has remained undeveloped since the late 1950s, resulting in large stands of mature hemlocks in the dunes. We observe deer, turkeys, foxes, eagles, and snowy owls quite regularly right from the office windows.”
Staff at both plants immediately stepped up to the plate, and not only took the HWA survey crew out onto their properties but also helped them understand what areas had the largest number of these often hidden trees. Nicholas Culp, Manager for Entergy’s Palisades Plant, was excited to continue the work with the district and the CISMA. “Time and again, the Conservation District has been a great partner on local conservation issues. They are truly committed to the mission of environmental stewardship, which supports a higher quality of life for all of us here in Van Buren County. We were happy to partner with them in the field at Palisades as part of their larger effort to protect our state’s threatened hemlocks and raise greater public awareness of this important issue.”
The CISMA continues to reach out to partners up and down the coast, including local townships, villages, and cities, to survey public properties. According to Serocki, the next step is to reach out to private land owners. “It really is a community effort here to pull together and get the coastline surveyed,” Serocki says, “but folks here really care about our forests and our lake, and I have no doubt they’ll help us protect the resources we all love.”
If you have property along the coast, or have an area you think needs special attention, the CISMA is requesting you reach out, either by email (eleanor.serocki@macd.org) or phone (269-657-4030×5). The CISMA is happy to answer questions and will be posting updates and information to both their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SWXSWCornerCISMA/) and their Instagram account (@SWxSWCornerCISMA).
If you think you’ve seen this bug, or if you’d like more photos, go to misin.msu.edu. The HWA program throughout the state is funded in part by the Michigan Invasive Species Grant program, which is a collaboration between the DNR, DEQ, and MDARD.
— SW x SW Corner CISMA
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