WVDA completed the first year of a cooperative agreement to treat Cathedral State Park for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), a non-native pest that damages and kills Hemlock trees by feeding on tree sap.
Under the agreement, Bayer will provide its CoreTect insecticide for six years, which the WVDA will apply to approximately one-third of the 133-acre forest every two years.
CoreTect is formulated in small, marble-sized pellets and must be spread around each tree individually.
Over the past year, about 12 WVDA staff members were involved in the project, and treated 1,370 trees by hand.
WVDA has conducted treatments on public lands since 2004, and is starting its third year of a public/private effort to treat for HWA in private forests.
