Author: Charles Kahn

  • Ken Newcomb Bench Dedication

    Ken Newcomb Bench Dedication

    The memorial to Ken Newcomb was made possible by financial contributions from many of his friends and family and by the unstinting volunteers who conceived and designed and transported the stone bench. To all of these thoughtful people, too numerous to list, the Friends extend their deepest gratitude. The Friends sited Ken’s memorial bench at…

  • Ken Newcomb Memorial Dedicated Summer 2003

    Ken Newcomb Memorial Dedicated Summer 2003

    On Tuesday, August 5, 2003 more than 30 Friends of Hemlock Gorge and members of the family of the late Ken Newcomb gathered for our annual summer picnic and to dedicate his memorial bench at Artist’s Point. To see more pictures of the memorial site, and to see photos of the dedication celebration, click here.…

  • Governor Romney merges the former MDC into a new Department of Conservation and Recreation

    Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s proposal to eliminate the Metropolitan District Commission has been accepted by the Legislature and signed into law as part of the fiscal Year 2004 budget. However, the Metropolitan Park Commission’s spirit lives on. A new Department of Conservation and Recreation has been created in the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. It…

  • Hopeful Adelgid News: The Ladybugs may be having an effect

    Hopeful Adelgid News: The Ladybugs may be having an effect

    It’s been more than a year since the release of the first ladybugs. We still don’t have an official opinion from forester Charlie Burnham on their impact. but at the August picnic, we all toured the site and inspected the hemlocks. What we saw made us cautiously optimistic. Although several trees have died, and evidence…

  • 2001 Ladybug Release

    2001 Ladybug Release

    May 2, 2001 The long struggle to save the trees in Hemlock Gorge reached a turning point at 2:30 on Wednesday, May 2, 2001. At that time Massachusetts state forester Charlie Burnham and site supervisor Kevin Hollenbeck released the first of 10,000 ladybugs grown during the winter to combat the Woolly Adelgid. The insects, black,…

  • Adelgid Good News Flash

    Hemlock Gorge site supervisor Kevin Hollenbeck has just announced that the ladybugs grown during the winter to combat the Woolly Adelgid will be released in the reservation during the afternoon of Wednesday, May 2. A more exact time has not been announced, but may be obtained at the Friends’ regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May…

  • Adelgid Update: March 18, 2001

    The Boston Globe ran a nice article on the efforts of the Friends to combat the woolly adelgid. The online version is no longer available. REGIONWild woolly adelgids attack hemlock trees By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent, 3/18/2001 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/077/west/Wild_woolly_adelgids_attack_hemlock_trees+.shtml This story ran on page 1 of The Boston Globe’s Globe West section on 3/18/2001.Copyright 2001 Globe…

  • Steve Clark: Four Seasons of Hemlock Gorge

    Steve Clark: Four Seasons of Hemlock Gorge

    Panoramic photos of Hemlock Gorge taken by Steve Clark from the top of Echo Bridge show well the splendor of the Reservation and comprise the Friends’ Four Seasons of Hemlock Gorge collection. Panoramas were pretty special back in 2000.

  • About our Ladybugs

    About our Ladybugs

    The National Association of Conservation Districts published an encouraging note (June 1998) on the use of the ladybugs to control the adelgid. Additional information is in the Minutes of our November 1998 Meeting. Use of the ladybugs was also reviewed at hearings held by State Senator Stephen Brewer last fall in Gardner, MA.

  • About Adelgids (2000)

    The status of control efforts and debate since approval of the legislation are well summarized in a news story provided by the Massachusetts State House News Service. Click here to read that story. See our August, 2000 Woolly Adelgid Page for more information about the pest and our plan of action using the ladybug that…

  • Adelgid Update: December, 2000

    On November 9, 2000, the Metropolitan District Commission voted to approve an interagency Service Agreement with the Department of Environmental Management to grow the ladybugs that are the natural predators of the hemlock woolly adelgids that are killing the reservation. Dr. Charles Burnham of DEM has made arrangements to grow up a stock of ladybugs…

  • A Wedding!

    The Friends are delighted to announce that our secretary, Hannah Sherman, was married to Romolo Raffa on Sunday, December 10, 2000. The Friends, many of whom attended the reception, extend their best wishes to the happy couple!