Hiking Among Hemlocks

The Nature Navigators, the Polk County Middle School Hiking Club, hit the trail again! This adventure was along the Green River on part of the Green River Cove Trail. The hike was all about the native hemlock tree and its invasive predator, the woolly adelgid beetle. Hanusia Higgins, working with Hemlock Restoration Initiative, led this hike and taught us how to identify the hemlock tree and the pest infecting them. Hikers found specimens of the woolly adelgid affecting some of the trees and saw a black rat snake!