Quick hits: Hemlocks quickly dying and Duke Energy gives $1 million to N.C. coast

Study: Hemlocks dying quickly
"A tiny insect may be killing Eastern hemlocks across the Southern Appalachians even faster than expected, U.S. Forest Service researchers said Thursday.

"Most of the evergreen trees, called a 'keystone species' for their important ecological role, could be gone within a decade," says the Charlotte Observer. "Hemlock forests shelter dozens of species of birds and shade mountain streams, cooling the water for trout.

"The rapid death of the trees may also disrupt the way carbon cycles through the forests and into the atmosphere, said the research published by the Forest Service's Southern Research Station in Asheville. ..."

Duke set to give $1 million to N.C. coast

"Duke Energy will donate $1 million to help a fragile coastal N.C. peninsula adapt to climate change, the Nature Conservancy will announce today," according to the Observer.

"The money from one of the United States' largest utility sources of carbon dioxide, the gas linked to global warming, will help the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge cope with rising sea levels.

"The refuge sits on the 2,100-square-mile Albemarle Peninsula, just inside the Outer Banks. The peninsula has very high vulnerability to sea-level rise, one of the hallmarks of climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a January report. ..."

5,400 acres burned in Pisgah, though fire contained

The wildfire in the Burke County section of the Pisgah Forest has now consumed some 5,400 acres, though it is now contained, though the terrain has made it difficult to do so.

"You can't get good footing, you don't have a good escape route, you have thick brush that you can't walk through," John Strom, a U.S. Forest Service ranger from Arkansas, told the Charlotte Observer.

Strom spent 18 days in the Pisgah National Forest, where the blaze began June 8, and said the mulch covering the ground allowed smoke and heat to fester inches below the surface.

"This is pretty dang thick stuff, just a mass of organic matter," Strom said.

The fire consumed 1,900 acres in mid-June, and firefighters thought they had nearly contained it. But 10 days later, it flared up and, in a week, more than doubled to 4,517 acres, officials said. ...

By late Tuesday, crews had the fire 95 percent contained, said Dennis Wahlers, a Forest Service spokesman. He said they hoped to fully contain it by the weekend.

Pisgah forest fire takes out almost 5K acres

The Associated Press reported that a wildfire in the Pisgah National Forest has scorched about 4,500 acres since last week.

Some 4,517 acres now have burned in the Shortoff Mountain fire in the Linville Gorge Wilderness, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

"The fire and two others in the same forest were started June 8 by lightning," said the AP. "The fires have burned a total of 5,400 acres and are about 95 percent contained, the service said. ...

"Parts of the Linville Gorge Wilderness were closed but have been reopened to the public."