Beetles to save the hemlocks

Great Mountain Forest (GMF) foresters Jody Bronson, at right in photo, and Russell Russ released lady beetles, Sasajiscymnus tsugae, which are voracious predators of all stages of the hemlock woolly adelgid, an  invasive insect that arrived in the state in 1985, eventually spreading to all 169 towns and resulting in widespread hemlock mortality and decline. GMF started the program on Thursday, May 19, in Falls Village and plans to release 2,500 of the biologically safe predators, which have been successfully used throughout the state and in other states since 1995 in an effort to combat the woolly adelgid, which now has a foothold at GMF.

Photo by Matthew Gallagher

Photos by Matthew Gallagher

Photo by Matthew Gallagher

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Tuning up two passions under one roof

The Webb Family in the workshop. From left: Phyllis, Dale, Ben and Josh Webb, and project manager Hannah Schiffer.

Natalia Zukerman

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In the late ‘90s, Dale Webb was working in engineering and product design at a corporate job. “I took up instrument manufacturing as a fun challenge,” said Dale. After an exhibit at The National Association of Music Merchants in Anaheim, California, in 1999, The Magic Fluke company was born. “We were casting finger boards and gluing these things together in our basement in New Hartford and it just took off,” Dale explained. “It was really a wild ride, it kind of had a life of its own.”

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Robert Cray

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