The battle against the hemlock wooly adelgid in North Carolina will continue with help from a bevy of grants from the Hemlock Restoration Initiative, a grant pool set up to fund promising research in the fight against the invasive aphid-like insect that kills hemlocks. 

The Hemlock Restoration Initiative is spearheaded by N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and funded through the state’s multi-million dollar legal settlment with the Tennessee Valley Authority stemming from a federal air pollution lawsuit.

Without intervention, adelgid infestations can kill trees within just a few years. Hemlocks are ecological staples of Appalachian forests, cooling stream temperatures, storing water and providing food and habitat for wildlife.

• National Park Service work crews will suit up to chemically treat hemlock trees located along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Haywood, Transylvania, Avery and Watauga counties, funded through a $25,000 grant awarded to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. 

• Southwestern N.C. Resource Conservation & Development Council received $25,000 toward its work to create a hybrid hemlock species that will resist the aphid-like insect. The project, based at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, involves identifying resistant trees and testing their progeny throughout 17 eligible counties. 

• The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council received $25,000 to release predator beetles that feed on the adelgid. The beetles, Laricobius nigrinus, are winter predators that must be wild-caught during their active period from April to May.