Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge

A new book, Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge, edited by Harvard Forest director David Foster and co-authored by seven Harvard Forest research colleagues, is now available from Yale University Press. In a narrative that spans millennia of ecological change, the authors reflect on eastern hemlock's irreplaceable value to human culture, ecosystems, and scientific research.

The book is geared toward a broad audience. It explores hemlock forests and the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid that threatens them, and profiles the people and places behind more than a century of Harvard Forest hemlock research.

Excerpts from the book have been published in Orion (foreword by journalist Robert Sullivan), Northern Woodlands ("The Pisgah Forest" by David Foster), and are forthcoming in Arnoldia and Forest History Today.

Spring events will include author presentations at the Northeast Natural History Conference, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the University of Maine, and the Arnold Arboretum. A spring exhibit in the Harvard Forest Fisher Museum will feature photographs by Brooks Mathewson of wildlife associated with the eastern hemlock ecosystem.

A short video series (video 1 of 4 below), produced by Roberto Mighty, was created to accompany the book. The videos reflect ecological and historical concepts from the book and will be used by K-12 classrooms participating in the Harvard Forest Schoolard Ecology project, "Woolly Bully: the Invasive Pest, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid."

• Listen to an interview on WNPR's Colin McEnroe show.
• Learn more about hemlock research and education projects at the Harvard Forest.