Saving the Hemlocks: One Member’s Story to Protect a Family Camp

Saving the Hemlocks: One Member’s Story to Protect a Family Camp

CLWA is pleased to feature this article penned by CLWA Member Bill Hochadel. 

As I pull onto our driveway off Monks Rd. I so look forward to a slow drive for the next ¾ of a mile into “Camp”. I start down a slight grade of the driveway that takes me past a swamp area to the left and now a wooded area of young ash, maples, and pines compared to the old-growth woods farther in. When I first started coming to this property 55 years ago, there were no ash or maples there, but there were scrub pines in a field where my future father-in-law, as a kid, would bring the cows to graze from the family farm on the other side of Seneca Point Gorge.

Each ride into Camp reminds me of all the generations, five now since I have been around, that have camped, hiked, Xcountry skied, rode various all-terrain vehicles, and hunted on this property. Shortly after you descend the grade of the driveway, to the right we now have a pond that is enjoyed by family members who camp near and swim. It has been stocked with fish and is ready for the younger generations to ready their poles.

When I finally arrive at the “Camp”, I’m now nestled in the midst of mostly some very mature hemlocks and a few white oaks that provide a canopy over the buildings which protect them as well as a sanctuary for all the birds and animals. The canopy also provides cooler temps in the summer when our family camp is utilized more often nowadays. Not 30 feet from where I park, I can look into Seneca Point Gorge. I can view the thousands of mature hemlocks as well as the sight and sounds of the stream and a waterfall, 150 feet down, and before it empties into Canandaigua Lake. It is very beautiful and relaxing.

Unfortunately, I have been watching the hemlock canopy thin out and dissipate the last few years. Our property has been heavily infested with the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and we are losing that canopy fast. I’ve already noticed that in the summer it’s not as cool as in the past and there is much more light coming through with more and more dead branches. It is not conducive for maintaining the ambiance of “Camp” and as a continued wildlife sanctuary.

In the fall of 2022 we partnered with Jim Engle of White Oak Nursery. With his commitment and the approved pesticide he has treated thousands of the infected hemlocks. We concentrated first in the family “Camp” location and then started working in the outlying areas. The overall expense is not cost prohibitive especially when one looks at the overall cost of not treating. I can’t even imagine what it would cost the lake’s watershed and how our family “Camp”, a destination that has been favored for > 150 years, would look and be used if we were to lose all of these beautiful hemlocks. Seneca Point Gorge alone would look so different if all the hemlocks along its banks were dead in the next 10 years. We can only hope we were on time. There is much more that needs to be done.

-William Hochadel

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information and resources on HWA in the Canandaigua Lake Watershed, visit: https://www.canandaigualakeassoc.org/education-outreach/hemlock-woolly-adlegid/