Invasive insect threatens carbon storage in Michigan forests

Hemlock wooly adelgid is killing Michigan’s eastern hemlock trees. SHIMAT JOSEPH, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
Hemlock wooly adelgid is killing Michigan’s eastern hemlock trees. SHIMAT JOSEPH, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

LANSING

An invasive insect increasingly threatens one of the most important trees in Michigan and elsewhere in the Great Lakes region for storing the carbon that causes global warming.

Researchers have found that eastern hemlocks felled by the invasive woolly adelgid could emit 4.5 tons of carbon across almost two and a half football fields.

And that’s bad news for the environment, experts say.

The in…