Blight ravages the western hemlock, Washington's state tree

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

GRANITE FALLS — There’s a killer out there.

It’s stalking forests, searching for its preferred prey: western hemlocks.

When it strikes, as it has with increasing frequency, the tree’s demise can be swift. The needles typically die off in a certain sequence.

Jim and Judy Davis have seen the blight hit the 25 acres of forest they own in the Granite Falls area. Jim, a semi-retired executive coach, and Judy, a sculptor, have witnessed big changes since they moved there about two and a half years ago.

“At first, it was like, ‘Oh, this branch is dead.’ Then it was ‘That branch is dead,’” Judy Davis said. “It was like a stepladder going up the tree.”

“In a year and a half — bam!” Jim Davis said.

She describes a ghost-like stand of hemlocks “that looks like something out of ‘The Walking Dead.’ ”

Tree experts have been watching similarly scary scenes throughout Western Washington and Oregon. In the wild, the most-affected species is western hemlock, while at Christmas tree farms, it’s showing up in other kinds of trees.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/blight-ravages-the-western-hemlock-washingtons-state-tree/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=5d04da6807-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-5d04da6807-228635337

[Nay]

1. 95% of the eastern hemlocks in Shenandoah National Park in VA are dead, too, due

to the pest, woolly adelgid. Some of them were 500 years old. The Limberlost Trail, which I walked about 25 years ago, had hundreds of hemlocks that had been saved from loggers in the 20's. They are all dead.

[hunter]

2. You can remove the tracking crud from your link, everything after the question mark...

Like this:

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/blight-ravages-the-western-hemlock-washingtons-state-tree/

Many trees are highly dependent on the microbial communities within the soil. Climate change has an impact on those too.