Here in Nova Scotia I often find myself in Hemlock ravines. Some of the biggest most beautiful tree's in our forest's here are Hemlock. There is a push to try to slow the spread of the Wooly Adelgid here, however from what I've seen the focus has been on potentially limiting recreational activities in our forest's. Meanwhile the forestry industry marches on full speed ahead. I have found far more Ganoderma tsugae this year and earlier then I expected than the previous 3 years. I'm a big Eastern Hemlock fan for sure. Thank you Adam for this very concise and informative video. I appreciate it.
There are groups treating hemlocks in Nova Scotia, look up the medway community forest if you’d like to know more. They have occasional volunteer opportunities too
My mom lived next to a lake in PA. Right next to her home’s foundation a beautiful little hemlock began to grow. Because it couldn’t live there, I transplanted it to my yard in NY. I have well drained soil so I watered it the first few years. It’s happily growing and is now at least twice my height. It’s so very pretty and I couldn’t be happier!
Adam: I’m a subscriber and on your email list, and recipient of an email from you to me personally a few months ago in response to your newsletter about the value of learning from “old” things. The quality of your 1) research, 2) content, and 3) presentation together with your compelling style is fantastic. I look forward to your postings. Many thanks for sharing your gift. When you speak it’s like you’re speaking with us, like a friend. Keep up the great work.
There is something awe inspiring about big hemlocks that grow high on the top of a hill, towering wide and high. There boughs going up and out and down stretching 40ft out. The natural guardian's breaking the wind and carrying the heavy snow giving the forest below time to grow strong. In the age of fear based media to make up for the lack of content appreciate the consistent quality.
@@chadmarino2741 the heck are you talking about they can easily live 400-500 years but it's rare to find one that wasn't cut down in the past 300 years. Luckily hemlock grows in ravines and hard to log areas so older trees can be found. A park could have a tree that wasn't cut down too.
@el3ctros listen to yourself. You sound ridiculous. Trees on the North American east coast don’t live nearly that long. It’s fun to have imagination though.
Glad to find your channel again. I was on a walk early this morning, and looking at the ground. And thought about how I felt connected to the trees surrounding me because I saw their leaves constructing a perfect and beautiful carpet underfoot. Oak, maple, elm. Thought about a video you did, identifying trees by what you see on the ground. You did something important and valuable in our culture that's so splintered in its vision of the world. We walk around with tunnel vision rather than aware of the interlocking systems all around us at work, that's been at work since before we were here. We aren't aware of the trees in our neighborhoods, oftentimes. Keep it up. 🍉✌️
I have heard the decline and resurgence theory on other trees as well. After hearing of the fig tree seeds found from 2000 years ago grown and eventually its fruit harvested, that is evidence some trees at least could make a resurgence when the right circumstances needed for survival occur again.
Your passion for teaching and sharing your knowledge is so evident in all of your videos. I would describe your content as concise but full of information, complex yet perspicuously presented, and engaging. Kudos!
I live in a remote county on the Tennessee line where Gensing and Turkey Tail mushrooms grow. I'm on an old ridge which is a Water Dome LOL and every day I get to view the Hemlock tree that grows on the Water Domes rim LOL. ❤❤
Thank you so much for this healing perspective of the Eastern Hemlock decline. I have even so sad every time I pass one of infested Hemlocks during my hikes. This has given me a context that is broader in time enabling me to believe that perhaps they will come back some day.
Another informative video....on a funny note...when you are standing in front of the small hemlock, it appears as though you have two green antenae on your head moving in sync with your head movement.
My favorite tree. I spend a lot of time, every 3 years or so, pouring a water based pesticide (Bonide) on the hemlocks on my property. I now have very healthy trees, especially the one in my front yard (rather large). I've noticed something interesting. Even though I didn't treat all my hemlocks, some are difficult to get to carrying water buckets, they have mostly recovered too. It makes me wonder if there is some density of wooly adelgid that is needed for it to thrive. I'm glad either way.
@@cindybarton8562 around the roots of both, just less for the smaller ones. I've transplanted some small ones to another part of my property and I just poured a smaller amount. They have done well. You can also just spray the small trees as I recall (from the directions).
Trees are now known to help feed their neighbors through roots and fungi. Stumps of some trees have been kept alive for many years without producing any food themselves.
As a native of upstate New York (and now living in Connecticut), and a life-long nature lover, I am, of course, well acquired with tne eastern hemlock and its current challenges. So I greatly appreciate the historical information that you have presented in this video. As always with your posts, it was very informative and interestingly and clearly presented. Thanks ! And keep up the great work !
In Connecticut, I grew up with many dark forests of eastern hemlock. After hurricane Gloria, the hemlock forests perished completely from the wooly adelgid. State Entomologist, Mark McClure introduced an invasive lady bug that to control the adelgid, and hemlock are coming back living with the adelgid in Connecticut.
I have a couple grand daddies that somehow managed to hang on in the southeast Litchfield County area. I absolutely love sitting beneath these giants and looking up through their branches.
Also in my area, “Hemlock regional state park” near manassas VA got designated as old growth hemlocks! They aren’t nearlyyyy as big, but still 250+ years old
Awesome video as always! It's amazing to think how the current ranges of our native trees are just a snapshot in time, and over longer time scales they have shifted, shrunk, and expanded. Very fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing!
I love this channel Adam! You are such a good science communicator and the juxtaposition of beautiful but also topically relevant forest footage is sublime.
I have a small 15 acre property and a separate 7 acre parcel in Eastern Ontario. There have been so many changes to the area forests. Pests have decimated the elms, butternuts, ashes, now we are also seeing attacks on beeches, hemlocks, and also spruce. We are anticipating attacks on the oaks and maples. For the small property owner, the question of what to plant becomes a question of “what tree species would I like to grow”, to “which trees have a chance of survival”.
Well said. The majesty of old-growth hemlock is something you can't even explain in words. I think this video is a great example for resource managers to hopefully take a step back when dealing with the many ills caused by insects, fungus, nematodes, climate... If the hemlock can recover so can other species without drastic measures like clear cutting or routine injections. Resiliency to climate changes, insects and disease can only be perpetuated by allowing resistant trees to exist and propagate. Nearly removing all the American chestnut out of fear of the blight didn't bode to well for it. Ergo, measures within reason as you stated are appropriate but again within reason. The ending statement about change and how dynamic change can be over the varying spans of time is on point as well as our perceptions about how much we need to be involved in trying to fix everything. And thank goodness for bogs and fens which can tell us so much about the past- nature's herbariums.
I really enjoy your almost taoist perspective on ecology. Nature will always prevail, maybe just not in a way that provides a constant steady state benefit to humans.
Forty years ago while scouting for moose in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada my companion and I came upon a stand of hemlock that had trees with girths so large that we could not touch each other's hands when embracing them. I've never been back to that area but I believe they have since been harvested.
My absolute favorite tree 🌲 So dark, dank that in an old growth forest they block out all light from the forest floor resulting nothing but thick bed of pine needles on the forest floor that smells like heaven itself. So sad to see so many dying off near me. Giant ones that have stood for hundreds of years are succumbing. It will be after my lifetime that our forest will recover, and that greatly saddens me.
Oh man, this takes me back! When I had just turned 9, in the summer of 1996, my family visited Joyce Kilmer Forest in North Carolina, and saw the towering old-growth hemlocks. After graduating law school and in her last semester of PhD studies, my wife and I went to the same forest in the fall of 2014, and it was heartbreaking to see the dead husks of those grand trees. We have hopes, though, as on our 3,000'-elevation Appalachian ranch, we have quite a few gorgeous examples--running the gamut from small and young to very large and old--of Tsuga canadensis, and they are all very healthy and vibrant.
One of my neighbors had two beautiful mature hemlock trees taken out of her front yard last year. They were healthy and one even shaded her carport where she sits out frequently during the day, the other was off to the side. Neither were interfering with power lines or anything, either, so no idea of the reason. I think they did well because her lot is shaded by a surrounding wooded area in Summer and it's flatter than most of the others so retains water better than the rest of ours tend to do.
I do so enjoy these videos, I learn so much about our W PA environs! Thank you!! I live along a creek, at the base of the Appalachian plateau. I have several very large hemlock on my land; thankfully they are doing well.
I've watched all the mature green ash trees die on my property in the last 20 years. Only younger seedlings survived but as they reach maturity, the emerald ash borer takes them down.
We have a good bit of hemlock, always confined to 50-100 steps from the creek. Adelgid seemed to damage nursery-sized trees but the older ones are not showing it (may be happening, but not visible, and I grew up in timber industry). Opposite happened 20 years ago with pine beetles, with younger trees seemingly unaffected. Appreciate your content, approach, and attitude. 👍😎 We have a few chestnuts still poking up from 100 years ago, then dying back, and trying again a few years later. Only saw one live to fruiting age. Thanks again! 👍😎 Particularly liked the poison oak/ivy video.
Hi Adam, Thank you for another great Video and your work in general. YOU got me out there safely looking for and eating mushrooms. I am so impressed with your quality research and the documentation of your views. Your 10,000 ft view encompasses Millenia, not just decades and is required for a comprehensive perspective of the health of our Forest Biomes. YOU have taught me so much, and I am so grateful. Thank you Sir.
We have some massive Hemlocks in Ontario, and yes they are dying...only plus I guess is that one by one they flush huge amounts of Reishi, so in the area I'll have the supply the rest of my life. 🍄🍄🍄
Very balanced presentation. Thank you for the great info! I have a 6 acre property on PEI and it has one.Just one. Its about 20 or so. Hoping it makes it, so far no wooley buggers.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion. I find many beautiful Eastern Hemlock in Ontario, around Owen Sound. Knowing more about their history and status is great. Around Ontario common buckthorn is our worst invasive tree, I think.
Very interesting and well explained reasons, thanks for sharing. I have learned so much from your videos. I hope one day we will cross paths since I also live in western pennsylvania.
Fabulous research and presentation, Adam. I wasn't aware of this long-term history of the Eastern Hemlock. In the 22 years I've been living on this land (and esp the last 10 years), we've seen serious hemlock decline - as in widespread death from hemlock pathogens (Wooly Adelgid followed by Hemlock Borer beetle). It's been fascinating to seen how bird species like our woodpeckers benefit from hemlock decline ( a) by feasting on all the invertebrates living in these declining trees and b) by utilizing the cavities created by larger woodpeckers). Forests communities are dynamic - not static...which you communicate well. Change is the one constant we can count on in the more-than-human-world.
I live in upstate NY on the VT border. We're surrounded by thousands of acres of forest. There are a lot of Hemlock trees and I'm happy to report, never a shortage of Reishi mushrooms. I've been noticing an alarming quantity of dead and fallen Hemlocks over the past several years, especially in steep ravines and notches where there's dense canopy, not much daylight, and it remains wet a lot longer than flat open areas where hundreds of Hemlocks stand just a short distance from each other.
Nooooo, one of my very favorite trees. Miss them over here in germany. I grew up with only smallish ones around and was really blown away when I saw how big they can get. I must say I found the big ones a bit boring though. That soft, shady foliage is so high up on the big ones, you don't feel it intimately like smaller trees. :) They grow all over the gorges in central new york.
Love the Hemlock tree. I planted a six foot tall one in the side yard about 8 years ago and over the years the deer have attacked it and tore off the lower two thirds of its of branches. Currently only the top third of the tree has minimal branches and the tree overall seems stunted, it hasn't grown hardly at all. It's very sad and I don't know what to do with it. I had a Willow I planted about 20 feet away, beautiful perfect specimen that doubled in size in about 4 or 5 years. The canopy was just about right to start sitting under it as it was about 20 feet tall. But the deer kept attacking it as well. Then it got hit with a drought even though I stayed on top of it by watering it daily in the evenings. It never made a rebound and it comletely died by the following year.
Thanks Adam. It must have taken you a long time to gather all that fascinating information for this video. The cycles of ecology during interglacial periods of the Pleistocene go through Dry Open Woodland, Deciduous Forest, Mixed Forest and then Humid Conifer Forest before Open Vegetation during a glacial maximum. I pulled this from "The British Palaeolithic" an interesting book by Paul Pettitt and Mark White. A great source of information for anyone interested in archaeology of that period.
Adam, if you're ever in southern Indiana, I recommend that you come out here to Crawford County. Not too far from my home, over in the Hoosier National Forest part of the county, there's a very beautiful and mystical box canyon called Hemlock Cliffs. The hemlocks grow there in abundance, thanks to the damp environment and relatively cool temperatures of the canyon. There are some nice waterfalls, a sandstone arch, and plenty of green all year round. There's also a mystery of a family that disappeared there back in 1949. They were actually living with a neighbor named William (Bill) Dessie Messamore, because their own house had burned. Bill was a notorious bank robber who in fact spent some time on Alcatraz Island. His farm was actually on a promontory area known as Messamore Cliffs, a short distance from the official Hemlock Cliffs recreation area, Bill was never charged in connection with the disappearance of the Vandiver family, and no bodies were ever found. Anyway, it's a really neat place to see. Thanks for the new video. Keep up the awesome work!
Most natural occurrences are cyclical. Whether it's an outbreak of pests, climate fluctuations, or seasonal weather ( think tornado or hurrican season) As we continue to learn/or deduce what happened in years gone by; I hope we still have time to apply what we are learning to save our forests today.
Several decades ago I made several visits to The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest as well as old-growth Tulip/Eastern Hemlock cove forests in Smokey Mountains National Park. The Eastern Hemlock were huge, the Tulip huger. If memory serves, often 8' or more dbh, with 75-100 feet of clear trunk and a crown of large limbs reaching up another 100'. Best seen early spring, winter and later in the autumn. Better visibility, fewer bugs. How well are the Hemlock doing in the Allegheny rain-forest?
@@boxcutter0 I don’t think the birds can get through their web fortresses and the trees are 40’ tall so I can’t spray them. Just gotta hope they can survive the summer with no foliage.
The richest people on the planet decided trees don’t matter, this proves intelligence is not a requirement to be wealthy, you just have to be greedy, and be willing to sacrifice nature for profits.
Very interesting, Adam. Time will tell if Eastern hemlock survive the woolly adelgid. I'm not optimistic, and I hope that I'm wrong not to be. As you say, hemlock is so ecologically important that even a significant decline (as we're seeing now, at least in the stands that I've visited in the past decade or so) will have massive ecological ramifications, from native insects, to birds, to fish, and on and on. And this is coming on top of all the other losses and significant declines, such that there is an actual cascade of associated losses. I'm no Chicken Little and I understand natural cycles, but the changes that are occuring now are anthropogenic, extremely rapid, and geographically extensive in ways that dwarf previous cycles and outpace the ability of many species to adapt. Yes, 'nature' will endure, but it will be changed very dramatically and the losses than define the changes are heartbreaking.
I feel the same way about American white people being deliberately replace by third world non whites. The United States will endure, but the changes will be very dramatic, and the losses that characterize the change will be heartbreaking.
I know where this one patch of hemlocks above the Old Lanesboro PA revisor have all died. There are a few maybe at the 1200 to 1400 ft elevation line above them, but that is it a few scattered through the wood above that dense and dead grove of hemlocks. Now other areas it is a few here adn a few there that are dead, not just all like there.
Be sure to read the article, "A Four-Year, Seven-State Reforestation Trial with Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) Resistant to Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae)" from the academic journal "Forests." Researchers from the University of Rhode Island bred hemlock trees that have survived the HWA and Elon Scale and they have a ridiculously high survival rate. I'm still trying to find where I can get some seeds and seedlings to help with reforestation, but there are plots of these trees in several places.
Things look pretty bleak for the Eastern Hemlock right now. I really hope the hemlock can make a turnaround as it's one of my favorite trees. Both of my favorite trees are threatened right now, the hemlock and the beech tree.
Those are mine too, and I only learned of the major threats to beech in the last five years. We've lost the hemlock completely in the NC mountains, and I've simply stopped going into the woods for hikes or fishing where they once were. Hope they come back, but I know I won't live to see it.
@Panzer_the_Merganser Yes, modern society has really done a job on the North American forest, to the point where it's not healthy at all anymore. Both Hemlock and Beach provide important things for nature, from creating cooler waters in some areas necessary for some species to continue to providing an important food source for animals. And both of those trees are just so beautiful to me. Beech does have somewhat of a fighting chance as they have found disease resistant trees, and those are being bred.
@@aaronkolatch5211 I agree with you on all points, both trees are truly fantastic not only in aesthetics but how crucial they are to forests. I do a lot of invasive removals locally and once you see what should not be here, it's almost overwhelming how much meddling humans have done in a short time, but you keep trying. I didn't know about finding disease resistant beech, that made my day. Happily I can confirm there are projects going on now in the Pisgah National Forest (and elsewhere) to cultivate hybrid hemlocks that are safe from the adelgid. It's starting with saplings, and there's no guarantee each will make it to maturity, but who know? In a hundred years there may be hemlocks again.
@@Panzer_the_Merganser I know the Western hemlock is pretty much immune to Hemlock woolly adelgid. What do you think about them genetically modifying the eastern and Carolina Hemlock with a few Western Hemlock genes to make them immune to Hemlock woolly adelgid?
@@aaronkolatch5211 It's a good idea, to have the resistance in the Western woven into the Eastern's traits. I did a quick search on the Western, and the only reservation I have is it seems seems to be best suited for a Hardiness zone of 6, whereas locally zone 6 is deceasing. I've not read enough on the Chinese Hemlock in terms of hardiness, but I could see the southeast forests becoming to warm and dry for the Western.
Watched several of ur vids today-decline Elm, decline Oaks, now decline Hemlock-differing reasons ect. But years ago I watched a doc that explained how Forest predictably change over centuries or millennia-even the blights and insects and other, have always been here, weather patterns always change-maybe it’s just the way. Choose to battle it but I suspect it’s just nature
I have one of these. My area's pine forests were pretty much decimated. I wish I could get more pine species to grow near it & recreate a small pine forest, but thus far, it's been to no avail.
Out here in Washington State, the state tree is the Western Hemlock. Our hemlocks are also dying, due to a root fungus, Rhizoctonia butinii, and drought. But not affected by the Wooly Adelgid yet.
I appreciate the work you put into your content, and I admire how you promote different perspectives on topics such hemlock decline and the historic prevalence of chestnut in eastern forests. That said, I think this video in particular is too short and leaves out important contexts. I've already seen some comments going on how humans aren't responsible for the declines of various species and outright denial of human induced climate change. Given enough time, introduced species will find a balance in the ecosystems they've been introduced in. It is also possible for some of our most afflicted species populations to recover from exotic pathogens and changing environments. Climate change is natural, but that doesn't mean that human activities can't also influence such cycles. Currently, the world is very globalized and we've effectively brought continents together. The rate of these changes is rapid and it is very possible that some species become lost without proper attention. My big worry that is that people are going to takeaway from this video that nature always "heals itself". We can't control everything, and we shouldn't worry about everything, but we still need to be mindful of how we treat the environment.
Here in Nova Scotia I often find myself in Hemlock ravines. Some of the biggest most beautiful tree's in our forest's here are Hemlock. There is a push to try to slow the spread of the Wooly Adelgid here, however from what I've seen the focus has been on potentially limiting recreational activities in our forest's. Meanwhile the forestry industry marches on full speed ahead. I have found far more Ganoderma tsugae this year and earlier then I expected than the previous 3 years. I'm a big Eastern Hemlock fan for sure. Thank you Adam for this very concise and informative video. I appreciate it.
NS here too! Love our hemlocks!
There are groups treating hemlocks in Nova Scotia, look up the medway community forest if you’d like to know more. They have occasional volunteer opportunities too
My mom lived next to a lake in PA. Right next to her home’s foundation a beautiful little hemlock began to grow. Because it couldn’t live there, I transplanted it to my yard in NY. I have well drained soil so I watered it the first few years. It’s happily growing and is now at least twice my height. It’s so very pretty and I couldn’t be happier!
Adam: I’m a subscriber and on your email list, and recipient of an email from you to me personally a few months ago in response to your newsletter about the value of learning from “old” things. The quality of your 1) research, 2) content, and 3) presentation together with your compelling style is fantastic. I look forward to your postings. Many thanks for sharing your gift. When you speak it’s like you’re speaking with us, like a friend. Keep up the great work.
Perfectly expressed !
Hi Adam and all my tree hugging friends🥰🌎☀️💙
Omnipresent Greetingz cuzinz 🌠 👋
This old growth hemlock forest in Maine is one of my favorite places to visit. it is sad to see these giants deteriorate
There is something awe inspiring about big hemlocks that grow high on the top of a hill, towering wide and high. There boughs going up and out and down stretching 40ft out. The natural guardian's breaking the wind and carrying the heavy snow giving the forest below time to grow strong.
In the age of fear based media to make up for the lack of content appreciate the consistent quality.
My town has a public park with a grove of eastern hemlocks that are 400-500 years old, it' such a special feeling walking through it!
Hemlock doesn’t live past 150 years
@@chadmarino2741 Yes it does. Don't be silly. Look Into Allegheny national Forest hearts content or cook Forest, many trees over 150 years old
@@chadmarino2741 the heck are you talking about they can easily live 400-500 years but it's rare to find one that wasn't cut down in the past 300 years.
Luckily hemlock grows in ravines and hard to log areas so older trees can be found. A park could have a tree that wasn't cut down too.
@el3ctros listen to yourself. You sound ridiculous. Trees on the North American east coast don’t live nearly that long. It’s fun to have imagination though.
@@chadmarino2741hemlocks live can over 800 years old
Thanks for your dedication 🙏
Glad to find your channel again. I was on a walk early this morning, and looking at the ground. And thought about how I felt connected to the trees surrounding me because I saw their leaves constructing a perfect and beautiful carpet underfoot. Oak, maple, elm. Thought about a video you did, identifying trees by what you see on the ground. You did something important and valuable in our culture that's so splintered in its vision of the world. We walk around with tunnel vision rather than aware of the interlocking systems all around us at work, that's been at work since before we were here. We aren't aware of the trees in our neighborhoods, oftentimes. Keep it up. 🍉✌️
I have heard the decline and resurgence theory on other trees as well. After hearing of the fig tree seeds found from 2000 years ago grown and eventually its fruit harvested, that is evidence some trees at least could make a resurgence when the right circumstances needed for survival occur again.
Yes, though the conditions in which those seeds are kept would have great impact on their survival.
Your passion for teaching and sharing your knowledge is so evident in all of your videos. I would describe your content as concise but full of information, complex yet perspicuously presented, and engaging. Kudos!
Yes! I fully agree.
That was interesting, I love the giant Eastern Hemlocks up here on the Plateau, Thanks for sharing.
I live in a remote county on the Tennessee line where Gensing and Turkey Tail mushrooms grow. I'm on an old ridge which is a Water Dome LOL and every day I get to view the Hemlock tree that grows on the Water Domes rim LOL. ❤❤
Geoengineering the weather could be alot of the problem too! Mother nature doesn't like to have to fight man-made aerial sprays.
@@judybee7862that's happening almost nowhere.
Nice! I'm close to the Bankhead NF and all it's wonderful stands of hemlocks.
We lost quite a few older Eastern Hemlocks in WNC about 7 years ago. 😢 There are some survivors and stump resprouts. I hope they survive.
Thank you so much for this healing perspective of the Eastern Hemlock decline. I have even so sad every time I pass one of infested Hemlocks during my hikes. This has given me a context that is broader in time enabling me to believe that perhaps they will come back some day.
Another great video. Thank you!
I'd love to see a follow-up discussing the current challenges of Eastern Hemlock.
Thanks for this very interesting and informative video ❤
The great decline of any tree saddens me
But with the decline of one tree, you see the rise of another. Apart from deforestation, nature finds balance.
@@jumpinjaxs Sorry to harsh your mellow, but that is far, very far from guaranteed.
So prehistoric man was not the cause? I don't believe it.
@@TommyChardonneret Even deforestation is nature finding a balance. Nature does not work to please us.
It’s a natural cycle. Same thing is happening today. Western pine beetle for example
There are some breathtaking stills in your videos lately. Really inspires me to get out in nature and slow down. Thanks for another great one.
Great Work, Adam. I loved the Hemlocks in Maine... Cheers.
(1:47) ...the wiggling branches behind your head make it look like you have antenna😂...Nature Man! Guardian of the trees!❤
lol, I was going to comment the same.
ohh s!ht it does too!
@@kwigbo Me too!
😂 yep! Kind of distracting, lol.
Another informative video....on a funny note...when you are standing in front of the small hemlock, it appears as though you have two green antenae on your head moving in sync with your head movement.
My favorite tree. I spend a lot of time, every 3 years or so, pouring a water based pesticide (Bonide) on the hemlocks on my property. I now have very healthy trees, especially the one in my front yard (rather large). I've noticed something interesting. Even though I didn't treat all my hemlocks, some are difficult to get to carrying water buckets, they have mostly recovered too. It makes me wonder if there is some density of wooly adelgid that is needed for it to thrive. I'm glad either way.
Do you put that on small trees or the ground around the roots of larger ones?? I have dearly loved Hemlock on my property!!~*
@@cindybarton8562 around the roots of both, just less for the smaller ones. I've transplanted some small ones to another part of my property and I just poured a smaller amount. They have done well. You can also just spray the small trees as I recall (from the directions).
Trees are now known to help feed their neighbors through roots and fungi. Stumps of some trees have been kept alive for many years without producing any food themselves.
As a native of upstate New York (and now living in Connecticut), and a life-long nature lover, I am, of course, well acquired with tne eastern hemlock and its current challenges.
So I greatly appreciate the historical information that you have presented in this video. As always with your posts, it was very informative and interestingly and clearly presented. Thanks ! And keep up the great work !
In Connecticut, I grew up with many dark forests of eastern hemlock. After hurricane Gloria, the hemlock forests perished completely from the wooly adelgid. State Entomologist, Mark McClure introduced an invasive lady bug that to control the adelgid, and hemlock are coming back living with the adelgid in Connecticut.
I have a couple grand daddies that somehow managed to hang on in the southeast Litchfield County area. I absolutely love sitting beneath these giants and looking up through their branches.
The pollen study is fascinating, Adam! Never heard of that. You always deliver some interesting research data with your lessons. I appreciate you!
Cathedral State Park in West Virginia is amazing! From Virginia, drove 2hrs to visit and walk through, never seen hemlocks that big
Also in my area, “Hemlock regional state park” near manassas VA got designated as old growth hemlocks! They aren’t nearlyyyy as big, but still 250+ years old
Awesome video as always! It's amazing to think how the current ranges of our native trees are just a snapshot in time, and over longer time scales they have shifted, shrunk, and expanded. Very fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing!
Great analysis and a wise summation on the nature of ecology. Thank you
I love this channel Adam! You are such a good science communicator and the juxtaposition of beautiful but also topically relevant forest footage is sublime.
I just want to say thank you for your hard work and dedication producing these videos. I really appreciate it and learn a lot from your work.
I have a small 15 acre property and a separate 7 acre parcel in Eastern Ontario. There have been so many changes to the area forests. Pests have decimated the elms, butternuts, ashes, now we are also seeing attacks on beeches, hemlocks, and also spruce. We are anticipating attacks on the oaks and maples. For the small property owner, the question of what to plant becomes a question of “what tree species would I like to grow”, to “which trees have a chance of survival”.
Well said. The majesty of old-growth hemlock is something you can't even explain in words. I think this video is a great example for resource managers to hopefully take a step back when dealing with the many ills caused by insects, fungus, nematodes, climate... If the hemlock can recover so can other species without drastic measures like clear cutting or routine injections. Resiliency to climate changes, insects and disease can only be perpetuated by allowing resistant trees to exist and propagate. Nearly removing all the American chestnut out of fear of the blight didn't bode to well for it. Ergo, measures within reason as you stated are appropriate but again within reason. The ending statement about change and how dynamic change can be over the varying spans of time is on point as well as our perceptions about how much we need to be involved in trying to fix everything. And thank goodness for bogs and fens which can tell us so much about the past- nature's herbariums.
Thank you Adam.
You always thank us for watching, but thank YOU for posting.
I really enjoy your almost taoist perspective on ecology. Nature will always prevail, maybe just not in a way that provides a constant steady state benefit to humans.
Forty years ago while scouting for moose in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada my companion and I came upon a stand of hemlock that had trees with girths so large that we could not touch each other's hands when embracing them. I've never been back to that area but I believe they have since been harvested.
My absolute favorite tree 🌲
So dark, dank that in an old growth forest they block out all light from the forest floor resulting nothing but thick bed of pine needles on the forest floor that smells like heaven itself.
So sad to see so many dying off near me. Giant ones that have stood for hundreds of years are succumbing.
It will be after my lifetime that our forest will recover, and that greatly saddens me.
Oh man, this takes me back! When I had just turned 9, in the summer of 1996, my family visited Joyce Kilmer Forest in North Carolina, and saw the towering old-growth hemlocks. After graduating law school and in her last semester of PhD studies, my wife and I went to the same forest in the fall of 2014, and it was heartbreaking to see the dead husks of those grand trees. We have hopes, though, as on our 3,000'-elevation Appalachian ranch, we have quite a few gorgeous examples--running the gamut from small and young to very large and old--of Tsuga canadensis, and they are all very healthy and vibrant.
I have never seen as much reishi mushroom than I have this year. The forrest floor is dry in central pa here ..not much rain so far this june
Thank you for continuing to teach me and others about our forests
Huh... this explains a lot! Thank you as ALWAYS!
The Easter hemlock is one of my favorites. Thanks for the video.
One of my neighbors had two beautiful mature hemlock trees taken out of her front yard last year. They were healthy and one even shaded her carport where she sits out frequently during the day, the other was off to the side. Neither were interfering with power lines or anything, either, so no idea of the reason. I think they did well because her lot is shaded by a surrounding wooded area in Summer and it's flatter than most of the others so retains water better than the rest of ours tend to do.
😢
Obviously she was possessed by satan.
Love you brother ❤️
I do so enjoy these videos, I learn so much about our W PA environs! Thank you!! I live along a creek, at the base of the Appalachian plateau. I have several very large hemlock on my land; thankfully they are doing well.
Thank you. You've given me new ways to think about change!
Fascinating, Adam! Anyone know why many young sugar maples are failing in eastern forest? Losing more every year here, no road salt, etc. Heat stress?
They don't like it warm. In what region are you seeing decline?
@@michellesmithunroe2463 Adams Co, S Ohio. High and dry forest, prairie. Thank you!
I've watched all the mature green ash trees die on my property in the last 20 years.
Only younger seedlings survived but as they reach maturity, the emerald ash borer takes them down.
Thanks Tree Dude !
Thank you Adam for an informative and Honest report.
We have a good bit of hemlock, always confined to 50-100 steps from the creek. Adelgid seemed to damage nursery-sized trees but the older ones are not showing it (may be happening, but not visible, and I grew up in timber industry). Opposite happened 20 years ago with pine beetles, with younger trees seemingly unaffected. Appreciate your content, approach, and attitude. 👍😎 We have a few chestnuts still poking up from 100 years ago, then dying back, and trying again a few years later. Only saw one live to fruiting age. Thanks again! 👍😎 Particularly liked the poison oak/ivy video.
another superb presentation….you rock. Love all your vids
This was a bunch of great information thank you.
Hi Adam,
Thank you for another great Video and your work in general. YOU got me out there safely looking for and eating mushrooms. I am so impressed with your quality research and the documentation of your views. Your 10,000 ft view encompasses Millenia, not just decades and is required for a comprehensive perspective of the health of our Forest Biomes. YOU have taught me so much, and I am so grateful. Thank you Sir.
I fully agree !
We have some massive Hemlocks in Ontario, and yes they are dying...only plus I guess is that one by one they flush huge amounts of Reishi, so in the area I'll have the supply the rest of my life. 🍄🍄🍄
Very balanced presentation. Thank you for the great info! I have a 6 acre property on PEI and it has one.Just one. Its about 20 or so. Hoping it makes it, so far no wooley buggers.
Thank you, Mr. Adam, thank you.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion. I find many beautiful Eastern Hemlock in Ontario, around Owen Sound. Knowing more about their history and status is great. Around Ontario common buckthorn is our worst invasive tree, I think.
Very interesting and well explained reasons, thanks for sharing. I have learned so much from your videos. I hope one day we will cross paths since I also live in western pennsylvania.
Great comments. Change is inevitable in any ecosystem and it is actually good for the system.
Fabulous research and presentation, Adam. I wasn't aware of this long-term history of the Eastern Hemlock. In the 22 years I've been living on this land (and esp the last 10 years), we've seen serious hemlock decline - as in widespread death from hemlock pathogens (Wooly Adelgid followed by Hemlock Borer beetle). It's been fascinating to seen how bird species like our woodpeckers benefit from hemlock decline ( a) by feasting on all the invertebrates living in these declining trees and b) by utilizing the cavities created by larger woodpeckers). Forests communities are dynamic - not static...which you communicate well. Change is the one constant we can count on in the more-than-human-world.
Love your channel so much
Ty for teaching us Adam
What an awesome video full of education
Is there a posibility of you making a video about seqoias? I would love that since its my fav tree
I live in upstate NY on the VT border. We're surrounded by thousands of acres of forest. There are a lot of Hemlock trees and I'm happy to report, never a shortage of Reishi mushrooms. I've been noticing an alarming quantity of dead and fallen Hemlocks over the past several years, especially in steep ravines and notches where there's dense canopy, not much daylight, and it remains wet a lot longer than flat open areas where hundreds of Hemlocks stand just a short distance from each other.
Bro your videos are amazing and I love them. Creation is much younger. I hope this helps.
Very well said. Great conclusion
Thanks for the info, friend.
Nooooo, one of my very favorite trees. Miss them over here in germany. I grew up with only smallish ones around and was really blown away when I saw how big they can get. I must say I found the big ones a bit boring though. That soft, shady foliage is so high up on the big ones, you don't feel it intimately like smaller trees. :)
They grow all over the gorges in central new york.
Another fascinating video Adam. And Nature just keeps rolling along and doing its thing! 🌲🌲👍👍
I agree with you completely! There are a lot more factors we have no control over than the few things we can control.
We have those in Alabama in the Bankhead Forest. I think it’s the Southern most stand in the country. We have some massive examples.
Thanks Adam.
Love the Hemlock tree. I planted a six foot tall one in the side yard about 8 years ago and over the years the deer have attacked it and tore off the lower two thirds of its of branches. Currently only the top third of the tree has minimal branches and the tree overall seems stunted, it hasn't grown hardly at all. It's very sad and I don't know what to do with it.
I had a Willow I planted about 20 feet away, beautiful perfect specimen that doubled in size in about 4 or 5 years. The canopy was just about right to start sitting under it as it was about 20 feet tall. But the deer kept attacking it as well. Then it got hit with a drought even though I stayed on top of it by watering it daily in the evenings. It never made a rebound and it comletely died by the following year.
Thanks Adam. It must have taken you a long time to gather all that fascinating information for this video. The cycles of ecology during interglacial periods of the Pleistocene go through Dry Open Woodland, Deciduous Forest, Mixed Forest and then Humid Conifer Forest before Open Vegetation during a glacial maximum. I pulled this from "The British Palaeolithic" an interesting book by Paul Pettitt and Mark White. A great source of information for anyone interested in archaeology of that period.
Great video! Thanks!!!
I love hemlocks, any advice on getting one to sprout from the cone? I've been trying unsuccessfully for a couple of years now
Adam, if you're ever in southern Indiana, I recommend that you come out here to Crawford County. Not too far from my home, over in the Hoosier National Forest part of the county, there's a very beautiful and mystical box canyon called Hemlock Cliffs. The hemlocks grow there in abundance, thanks to the damp environment and relatively cool temperatures of the canyon. There are some nice waterfalls, a sandstone arch, and plenty of green all year round. There's also a mystery of a family that disappeared there back in 1949. They were actually living with a neighbor named William (Bill) Dessie Messamore, because their own house had burned. Bill was a notorious bank robber who in fact spent some time on Alcatraz Island. His farm was actually on a promontory area known as Messamore Cliffs, a short distance from the official Hemlock Cliffs recreation area, Bill was never charged in connection with the disappearance of the Vandiver family, and no bodies were ever found. Anyway, it's a really neat place to see. Thanks for the new video. Keep up the awesome work!
I have seen it flourish in Grand father mountain state park north carolina. But it's only one small area in the great scheme of things.
Most natural occurrences are cyclical. Whether it's an outbreak of pests, climate fluctuations, or seasonal weather ( think tornado or hurrican season)
As we continue to learn/or deduce what happened in years gone by; I hope we still have time to apply what we are learning to save our forests today.
Good work!
Beautiful old growth Eastern Hemlock nestled in deep ravine below Bays Mountain Kingsport Tennessee devastated.😢
Several decades ago I made several visits to The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest as well as old-growth Tulip/Eastern Hemlock cove forests in Smokey Mountains National Park. The Eastern Hemlock were huge, the Tulip huger. If memory serves, often 8' or more dbh, with 75-100 feet of clear trunk and a crown of large limbs reaching up another 100'. Best seen early spring, winter and later in the autumn. Better visibility, fewer bugs.
How well are the Hemlock doing in the Allegheny rain-forest?
Web worms are crushing my cypress trees in the south right now. Never have I seen such a plague of web worms.
Maybe increase bird habit, water source & some nesting locations, good food for young birds.
@@boxcutter0 I don’t think the birds can get through their web fortresses and the trees are 40’ tall so I can’t spray them. Just gotta hope they can survive the summer with no foliage.
The richest people on the planet decided trees don’t matter, this proves intelligence is not a requirement to be wealthy, you just have to be greedy, and be willing to sacrifice nature for profits.
Good video. I am not familiar with this one, even being from Michigan. My area may just be outside the necessary habitat.
Very interesting, Adam. Time will tell if Eastern hemlock survive the woolly adelgid. I'm not optimistic, and I hope that I'm wrong not to be. As you say, hemlock is so ecologically important that even a significant decline (as we're seeing now, at least in the stands that I've visited in the past decade or so) will have massive ecological ramifications, from native insects, to birds, to fish, and on and on. And this is coming on top of all the other losses and significant declines, such that there is an actual cascade of associated losses. I'm no Chicken Little and I understand natural cycles, but the changes that are occuring now are anthropogenic, extremely rapid, and geographically extensive in ways that dwarf previous cycles and outpace the ability of many species to adapt. Yes, 'nature' will endure, but it will be changed very dramatically and the losses than define the changes are heartbreaking.
I feel the same way about American white people being deliberately replace by third world non whites. The United States will endure, but the changes will be very dramatic, and the losses that characterize the change will be heartbreaking.
I know where this one patch of hemlocks above the Old Lanesboro PA revisor have all died. There are a few maybe at the 1200 to 1400 ft elevation line above them, but that is it a few scattered through the wood above that dense and dead grove of hemlocks. Now other areas it is a few here adn a few there that are dead, not just all like there.
Be sure to read the article, "A Four-Year, Seven-State Reforestation Trial with Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) Resistant to Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae)" from the academic journal "Forests."
Researchers from the University of Rhode Island bred hemlock trees that have survived the HWA and Elon Scale and they have a ridiculously high survival rate.
I'm still trying to find where I can get some seeds and seedlings to help with reforestation, but there are plots of these trees in several places.
here in Vermont and New Hampshire the old pine trees are dying, along with some of the old firs
Lost many old growth hemlock in western RI 20 yrs. ago . Made for great reishi mushroom growth which has since declined.
Things look pretty bleak for the Eastern Hemlock right now. I really hope the hemlock can make a turnaround as it's one of my favorite trees. Both of my favorite trees are threatened right now, the hemlock and the beech tree.
Those are mine too, and I only learned of the major threats to beech in the last five years. We've lost the hemlock completely in the NC mountains, and I've simply stopped going into the woods for hikes or fishing where they once were. Hope they come back, but I know I won't live to see it.
@Panzer_the_Merganser Yes, modern society has really done a job on the North American forest, to the point where it's not healthy at all anymore. Both Hemlock and Beach provide important things for nature, from creating cooler waters in some areas necessary for some species to continue to providing an important food source for animals. And both of those trees are just so beautiful to me. Beech does have somewhat of a fighting chance as they have found disease resistant trees, and those are being bred.
@@aaronkolatch5211 I agree with you on all points, both trees are truly fantastic not only in aesthetics but how crucial they are to forests. I do a lot of invasive removals locally and once you see what should not be here, it's almost overwhelming how much meddling humans have done in a short time, but you keep trying. I didn't know about finding disease resistant beech, that made my day. Happily I can confirm there are projects going on now in the Pisgah National Forest (and elsewhere) to cultivate hybrid hemlocks that are safe from the adelgid. It's starting with saplings, and there's no guarantee each will make it to maturity, but who know? In a hundred years there may be hemlocks again.
@@Panzer_the_Merganser I know the Western hemlock is pretty much immune to Hemlock woolly adelgid. What do you think about them genetically modifying the eastern and Carolina Hemlock with a few Western Hemlock genes to make them immune to Hemlock woolly adelgid?
@@aaronkolatch5211 It's a good idea, to have the resistance in the Western woven into the Eastern's traits. I did a quick search on the Western, and the only reservation I have is it seems seems to be best suited for a Hardiness zone of 6, whereas locally zone 6 is deceasing. I've not read enough on the Chinese Hemlock in terms of hardiness, but I could see the southeast forests becoming to warm and dry for the Western.
I planted a witch Hazel tree in Pittsburgh and it's doing well, can you tell us in a video about this tree?
Hemlock forests are my favorite biome I’ve experienced.
Watched several of ur vids today-decline Elm, decline Oaks, now decline Hemlock-differing reasons ect. But years ago I watched a doc that explained how Forest predictably change over centuries or millennia-even the blights and insects and other, have always been here, weather patterns always change-maybe it’s just the way. Choose to battle it but I suspect it’s just nature
Thanks ❤
In northern Wisconsin, these are still very common. My friend has about 200 acres, theyre everywhere.
I have one of these. My area's pine forests were pretty much decimated. I wish I could get more pine species to grow near it & recreate a small pine forest, but thus far, it's been to no avail.
Out here in Washington State, the state tree is the Western Hemlock. Our hemlocks are also dying, due to a root fungus, Rhizoctonia butinii, and drought. But not affected by the Wooly Adelgid yet.
I appreciate the work you put into your content, and I admire how you promote different perspectives on topics such hemlock decline and the historic prevalence of chestnut in eastern forests. That said, I think this video in particular is too short and leaves out important contexts. I've already seen some comments going on how humans aren't responsible for the declines of various species and outright denial of human induced climate change. Given enough time, introduced species will find a balance in the ecosystems they've been introduced in. It is also possible for some of our most afflicted species populations to recover from exotic pathogens and changing environments. Climate change is natural, but that doesn't mean that human activities can't also influence such cycles. Currently, the world is very globalized and we've effectively brought continents together. The rate of these changes is rapid and it is very possible that some species become lost without proper attention. My big worry that is that people are going to takeaway from this video that nature always "heals itself". We can't control everything, and we shouldn't worry about everything, but we still need to be mindful of how we treat the environment.