Hemlocks across Western North Carolina — and the Eastern U.S. — are being decimated by a tiny sap-sucking insect called the hemlock wooly adelgid. The insect kills the trees, a huge loss for forests that depend on hemlocks for wildlife habitat, food, water storage and stream shading. The Hemlock Restoration Initiative supports existing efforts to combat the adelgid, hoping to enable hemlocks to recover and survive to maturity by 2025. Grants have funded the following initiatives:

• The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation will expand outreach efforts along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, a program launched with help from an HRI award last year. 
• The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council will train community leaders to release beetles that prey on the adelgid and establish local centers to breed the beetles, a program launched with help from an HRI award last year. 
• Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy will implement an integrated plan to manage for the adelgid on the conserved lands it services, hoping to develop a model for other land trusts to emulate. 
• Town of Montreat will continue its longstanding efforts to maintain hemlock health in the town and surrounding natural areas. 

Each project will receive between $5,000 and $20,000 in funding. 

The HRI is spearheaded by N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and funded through the state’s multi-million dollar legal settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority stemming from a federal air pollution lawsuit. www.savehemlocksnc.org