When the woolly adelgid come and a white cloud of tiny insects descends on the forest, the eastern hemlock dies.

Mike Bald tries not to use war terminology to describe his work of invasive plant removal. It's a resolution made difficult by the sheer magnitude of the task he faces. Royalton-based Bald spends his days crisscrossing the state digging, chopping and pulling myriad nonnative species: Japanese knotweed, chervil, giant hogweed, Japanese barberry and, for now, lots of wild parsnip.

Just 15 years ago, the eastern hemlock tree, the mighty Redwood of the East, was a scenic highlight of Virginia’s Skyline Drive, creating the shady groves that put Shenandoah National Park on the conservation map.

Now 95% of them are dead, rotting on the forest floor or still standing above the canopy as gray ghosts, with a few scattered survivors living on borrowed time as their attackers literally suck the life out of them.

Last year’s dry spring, coupled with a stretch of dry weather this year, has helped to fuel the resurgence of the spongy moth caterpillar, a furry nuisance blamed for defoliating an estimated 9 million acres from Maine to Maryland in 1981

This June, The Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Program is piloting a NEW Backyard Woods Program. The Program will be piloted in Washington County and is a four-week online program.

Bob Popp, Vermont State's Botanist, says the state is seeing more invasive plants, and believes that the climate change is playing a major roll. 

At the height of summer, numerous plants are in bloom. Also in bloom are the reported sightings of invasive plants. While many reports correctly identify common culprits, like Wild parsnip and Japanese knotweed, the suspected sightings of other invasive plants increase because of native plant look-a-likes.

The Emerald ash borer (EAB), is native to a very large geographic area of East Asia that includes northeast China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia and the Russian Far East. In its home range EAB is a minor, not particularly common secondary pest that attacks stressed trees of the local species of ash, predominately Chinese and Manchurian ash. Before 2002, EAB had never been found outside of its...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), working collaboratively with scientists funded by The American Chestnut Foundation, have helped confirm that addition of a wheat gene increases the blight resistance of American chestnut trees.

In 2012, the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets passed revisions to the Quarantine Rule. Below is the full press release as provided by the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets.