In the current issue of the nature writing magazine Orion, Robert Sullivan has an essay eulogizing the Eastern Hemlock.
This tree is being decimated by the hemlock wooly adelgid, a tiny but massively destructive pest. Sullivan says the hemlock has never been a particularly well-loved tree, but the experience of being in a dark, quiet, hemlock forest, where the falling pine needles create their own ambient sound would be enough to turn anyone into a fan.
Sullivan is the author of many books and has written the forward for the new book, Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge, which was recently adapted in Orion Magazine. He spoke with Vermont Edition about the tree that appears to be on its way out.