The Friends of Hemlock Gorge

Category: Update

  • Grim Adelgid News

    To everyone concerned with the Friends’ efforts to save our hemlocks from the woolly adelgid: We have learned that the $60,000 budget item we requested to grow and release ladybugs to safely combat the adelgids has been vetoed by Governor Cellucci. Our only chance now is for a legislative override. We urge all Friends and…

  • Urgent Adelgid News

    To everyone concerned with the Friends’ efforts to save our hemlocks from the woolly adelgid: We have learned that the $60,000 budget item we requested to grow and release ladybugs to safely combat the adelgids has made it into the compromise budget that was passed by the Legislature and is now in the hands of…

  • Adelgid News: September 17, 1999 and March 28, 2000

    March 28, 2000 If you have walked the Reservation recently, you have seen the intensity of the adelgid infestation. The smallest branches hang heavy with white death. They sag threadbare, wan, as if mourning the fatal illness of the starving great trunk soon to fall. As you know, no money needed to grow ladybugs to…

  • Hemlock Gorge on Channel 4

    Channel 4 Anchor Jack Williams did an op-ed column in the Herald and was contacted by Brian Yates. He filmed a story in Hemlock Gorge on Sunday with Brian and Charlie Burnham. It ran Sunday September 19 on the 6:30 and 11:00 o’clock news on Channel 4. Video tapes of the broadcast will be shown…

  • Veto of Funds to Combat the Adelgid

    Governor Cellucci vetoed the supplemental budget items (described in the next item) that would have provided money to combat the Adelgid and repair Echo Bridge. We regret to have to bring you this sad news, and are encouraging efforts to override the veto. When the vote to override will be taken is not yet known.…

  • News on the Adelgid and Bridge Fronts

    We have just heard from Rob Schwartz, Senator Creem’s legislative assistant, that both the money for the ladybugs to combat the Adelgids (see next news notice for details) and the money for the completion of the Echo Bridge Restoration are in the Supplementary Capital Budget that’s on the Governor’s desk. Barring line item vetoes by…

  • Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

    As most know by now, the wooly adelgid now threatens to kill all the Eastern Hemlocks in the reservation (and, indeed, all hemlock trees in the eastern U.S.). A tree typically lives only a few years after infestation. Working with the Friends, Representative Kay Kahn and Senator Cynthia Creem have petitioned MDC commissioner Balfour to…

  • Legislation Proposed in 1999

    H 3333 AN ACT RELATIVE TO ECHO BRIDGE. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, any funds received for the lease of the former Massachusetts Highway Department depot at…

  • The Restoration of Echo Bridge: 1997 Documentation

    The Rehabilitation of Echo Bridge in the Hemlock Gorge Reservation has been a long term concern of the Friends. A major restoration of the stone work was completed in 1992, but much work, including restoration of the Railings and the Echo Platform remain to be done. The following information regarding this unfinished project was provided…