Kentucky?s estimated 71 million hemlock trees are threatened by the woolly adelgid.
Like advance scouts from an invading army, the first ranks of a pest that could devastate the state's hemlocks has entered Kentucky.
Before it's all over, as many as 80 percent of the state's estimated 71 million hemlock trees may be dead from the woolly adelgid, a sap-sucking insect from Asia that's devastated forests from Massachusetts to North Carolina.
The implications of the damage could stretch far beyond a single species of tree, said Tim McClure, a forest health specialist with the Kentucky Division of Forestry. "When you look down the road, long term, the ecological effects could be ...