In January we received the following report from Forester Charlie Burnham. The trees in the Gorge seemed to him to be in better shape, but he could not determine if the cold weather or the ladybugs are responsible. This is his report:

“I was down at the Gorge in mid December to install a temperature recorder that we use to monitor winter mortality in the adelgid population as to see if any of the beetles are killed by the cold. I give the hemlocks a quick look and I think they look a little better than in the past. I can’t give the credit for this to the beetles but believe it is more a result of high adelgid mortality last winter as well as an increased amount of moisture this past growing season.”