Through the efforts of Bob Burke, a plan was made to treat the hemlock trees in the Reservation with an insecticide on Arbor Day, April 29. Jason Lupien of Lupien Tree Service was organizing the program to provide the labor at no cost, if the Friends could purchase the insecticide. See the minutes of our April, 2016 meeting.

Unexpectedly, the DCR announced that they had decided to undertake the treatment at no cost to the Friends. Ken Gooch of DCR and two USDA staff did in fact treat the trees on May 23. Brian was there to observe during the morning. He reports that they did dozens of trees from the pathway to the overlook to Echo Bridge, including some of the very tall ones near the bridge that look pretty sickly. If the treatment works, the results should be spectacular. They said they were going to spend the rest of the day treating trees and that they had plenty of supplies.

Arborist Ken Gooch of the DCR was at our June meeting to update us on the treatment of the hemlocks. At the moment the trees are in greater peril from the elongated hemlock scale than the adelgids. Lisa Barstow of the DCR updated us on the fence project, and Marti Rudi, also of the DCR, updated us on the Stone Building shingles. For more details read the minutes of our VERY informative June, 2016 meeting.