Points North: Finding the hemlock killer

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Points North

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Last month, a bug the size of a fleck of pepper was found in a hemlock tree in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The invasive bug is called the hemlock woolly adelgid and it threatens Michigan’s 170 million hemlock trees. Infestations have existed in southwestern Michigan for years, but last year it was discovered in Mason County and has since crept north of Ludington. Foresters hope to hold the line there and keep woolly adelgid out of hemlock stands in northern Michigan.