NASHVILLE-Predatory beetles that feed on hemlock woolly adelgids (HWA), an invasive pest killing swaths of hemlock trees from eastern Tennessee to the Cumberland Mountains, were released Tuesday at Martha Sundquist State Forest in Cocke County.

The release was an effort by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry (TDF) to protect young eastern hemlock seedlings from the invasive exotic pest, which is responsible for killing many, if not most, of the mature hemlocks in the state forest.

"Martha Sundquist State Forest is a good site for these beetles to be released because there is a healthy population of HWA to sustain them," said Douglas Godbee, TDF Forest Health Forester. "We will monitor these beetles over the next couple of years in hopes that they will reproduce, become an established population, and continue to prey on HWA in order to eventually control the HWA population."

For more details, please see the Thursday edition of the Newport Plain Talk.