Seven years ago, in 2010, I noticed a cluster of four mature dying hemlocks at the dog-leg bend in the sqebeqsed trail. I had witnessed the death and disappearance of eastern hemlocks in Shenandoah National Park in the 1990s due to the wooly adelgid. Concerned that something similar was taking place in this related species, I began an informal survey. Which I happily abandoned after a few months, discovering that all the hemlocks in other regions of the forest were apparently in good health.
Unfortunately this no longer seems to be true. Many mature hemlocks have recently been affected by factors unknown, many of them dying. Perhaps the annosus fungus is responsible, as was suggested to me by UW's Bob Edmonds in 2010. There is now a loose cluster of tall dead hemlocks on the Huckleberry Trail, and Kramer pointed out many dead or dying hemlocks just south of sword fern ground zero.
Here are my unedited notes from 2010, the result of informal research and email exchanges:
