Explosives brought in to topple NC's dead hemlocks

A years-long battle to save hemlocks in the Appalachian Mountains from a tree-killing pest has some new weapons: duct tape, a helicopter, explosives and a fresh arsenal of chemicals. U.S. Forest Service personnel are working this week in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest to eliminate some of the casualties of the struggle with an invasive insect called the woolly adelgid. About 150 dead hemlocks - some of them centuries old - threaten to tumble onto a popular trail frequented by about 35,000 visitors each year. Steve Lohr, the district ranger who oversees hundreds of thousands of acres of national forest in the region, said duct-taping explosives to the trees appears to be the safest way to knock them over. It's an uncommon technique but carries the added benefit of leaving a jagged stump as opposed to a clean cut. "Since it's in wilderness, we want it to look as natural as possible," Lohr said. Meanwhile, officials are redoubling their efforts to save what's left of the decimated hemlock population. For years, massive numbers of hemlocks have been killed off by the speck-sized adelgid, a bug thought to have come from Asia a century ago that seeks nutrients inside the trees...more

Helicopters and explosives in a Wilderness? Something ain't right here. I'll check it out and let you know.