Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 11 · column 3 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By Pam Owen
Special to the Rappahannock News
In the heat of summer, many human visitors to Shenandoah National Park have found relief in the cool, damp stands of eastern hemlock along the Limberlost trail, in the park’s central district. Spared from timbering before the park was created, the stand has represented a scarce old-growth ecosystem that also is home to resident and migrating wildlife.
Today, the hemlocks in the Limberlost are no more than brown skeletons, thanks to the hemlock wooly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), an aphid like insect from Asia. First spotted in the eastern United States in 1951 near Richmond, by 2005 the adelgid was established in parts of sixteen states and has been infesting the stands of hemlock in Shenandoah since 1988.
This pest’s young like to munch on the starch in the twigs at the base of hemlock needles. Starved of this nutrient on which they depend for their growth and long-term survival, the hemlocks decline and die within three to ten years.
“The long-term prognosis for eastern hemlock survival in Shenandoah is uncertain,” says park biologist and Forest Pest Manager, Rolf Gubler. “At this point, there are
r
90.0%