Category: Update

  • The Newton Tab declares the Adelgid Vanquished!

    The Newton Tab declares the Adelgid Vanquished!

    In early April, 2005 the Newton Tab wrote a nice article describing the efforts being made at Hemlock Gorge to thwart the adelgid. Site Supervisor Kevin Hollenbeck was featured. A PDF of the article has been provided.

  • 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…

  • 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!

  • State House News: JAPANESE LADYBUGS FLY TO THE RESCUE OF BELEAGUERED HEMLOCK FORESTS

    State House News: JAPANESE LADYBUGS FLY TO THE RESCUE OF BELEAGUERED HEMLOCK FORESTS

    Reprinted with the permission of the author. By Elisabeth J. BeardsleySTATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE, [email protected] STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SEPT. 12, 2000 The Bay State’s official bug could soon wing to the rescue of one of the state’s favorite native trees. Under a $60,000 pilot program included in this year’s budget, an army of Japanese ladybugs…

  • Simply Wonderful News

    The Friends’ efforts to save our hemlocks from the woolly adelgid: We have learned that Governor Paul Cellucci’s veto of the $60,000 budget item we requested to grow and release ladybugs to safely combat the adelgids was overridden late on Monday, July 31, 2000 by the State Legislature! This means that the money needed to…