Quabbin Reservoir (run by the DCR) will offer several free presentations this winter. All ages are welcome. Please call (413) 323-7221 for more information. The location of the Sunday, March 18 lecture by DCR Natural Resource Analyst Brian Keevan entitled From Green to Gray: Seventeen Years of Hemlock Decline Along a Quabbin Stream, will take place beginning at 2 pm at 485 Ware Road, Belchertown. Today, an estimated 26 percent of the region’s hemlock stands are at high risk. As winters get warmer, the decline will increase, with 43 percent of stands expected to be at high risk, according to a research team led by University of Maine Associate Professor of Forest Resources William Livingston.
Eastern hemlock is a towering foundational species in eastern North American forests valued from southern Canada to Alabama and as far west as Minnesota. But since the mid-20th century, eastern hemlock that can live more than 500 years have been increasingly threatened by the hemlock woolly adelgid that can kill a tree within four years by feeding on its needles and branches, preventing new growth.
