🐻🌲 I visited Cornell’s Invasive Species Quarantine Facility, where Cornell researchers…

🐻🌲 I visited Cornell’s Invasive Species Quarantine Facility, where Cornell researchers are combatting the invasive species Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), that is killing NY State’s Hemlock trees, by eating the tree’s sap, stopping needle production, starving the trees over time!! The HWA invaders are already in the Finger Lakes, approaching the Adirondacks, and the Catskills, where the source of NYC’s drinking water is surrounded by Hemlock Trees, those trees help keep the water clean! Cornell’s NY State Hemlock Initiative is the front line of defense, breeding specialist predators that eat the HWA invaders, releasing the specialist predators at strategic spots across NY State, to save the Hemlock trees!! It is a fascinating multi-pronged initiative, all the way from the biological DNA analysis of the hemlock trees and HWA invaders, to the population studies of specialist predator propagation post-release, to the government partnerships with the NY Department of Environmental Conservation!!!