“Invasive bug found on protected Lake George island,” Adirondack Explorer

“Invasive bug found on protected Lake George island,” Adirondack Explorer

Gwendolyn Craig, October 13, 2020

Photo by www.DomeIsland.org

Not even the most protected island on Lake George could escape the latest invasive species scourge.

Dome Island has hemlock woolly adelgid. The island is within sight of the 250-acre adelgid infestation found on the eastern shore of Lake George in Fort Ann and Dresden.

The 16-acre undeveloped island owned by the Nature Conservancy is dotted with Eastern hemlock trees. The island refuge has been closed to the public since 1956, though the Lake George Land Conservancy holds a semi-annual snowshoe hike out to this untouched piece of paradise, if the ice is thick enough.

Peg Olsen, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack Chapter, said it was “distressing” to find the invasive bug on the island.

“We are consulting with our colleagues at the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program and our partners in the region to determine the best course of action that’s in line with the coordinated effort already underway to control the spread of this invasive species,” Olsen added, in a statement to Adirondack Explorer.

The news came just after the Adirondack Park Agency passed a resolution putting an updated general permit involved with treating for hemlock woolly adelgid, out to public comment.

   
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