HemlockFest

HemlockFest, hosted by the Lumpkin Coalition, is an annual festival held the first full weekend in November.  The Festival and the proceeds from the festival are used to increase public awareness of eastern and Carolina hemlock tree problems and to provide financial support for the following: all three labs in Georgia (University of Georgia, Young Harris College, and North Georgia College and State University) raising predatory beetles to combat the destructive hemlock woolly adelgid an aphid-like insect native to Asia; assist private land owners and public agencies in managing the health of their Hemlock trees; and to facilitate other projects that benefit north Georgia, Lumpkin County, its residents and visitors. 

Hemlock stands are among the only old growth forests in the east and are of great importance to wildlife, water quality, economy, and basic quality of life.

Festival activities include live music, primitive camping, knife throwing and archery, canoeing on Lake Merlin, arts & crafts demonstrations, interactive presentations and exhibits, experts are on hand to answer your questions about the hemlocks, there are kid-friendly activites, a silent auction, and much more!

Vendors provide food & drink (including beer and with proper identification), jewelry, pottery, wood, stone and metal sculptures, Native American crafts, paintings, watercolors, photography, clothing, herbs, furniture, and festival merchandise for sale.  This list is not comprehensive and tends to grow each year!

The North Georgia College and State University predator beetle lab 2010 releases:

With the help of the Lumpkin Coalition, through the donation from HemlockFest, the NGCSU predator beetle lab was able to purchase an environmental chamber (Percival). This chamber allows specific temperature (the needed low temperatures), humidity, and day:night cycle which can't be easily created without one. Those donations, leading to the purchase of the percival, allowed the NGCSU beetles lab to begin rearing another species of beetle Scymnus sinuanodulus. The lab received this new species in Jan. 2010 and began to build the colony. 1,400 Ss beetles have been held over to begin the rearing process next season and 688 Ss adults were released onto 3 HCAs.

To date the lab has been able to release 206,160 Sasajiscymnus tsugae beetles and 688 Scymnus sinuanodulus beetles.  
Research has shown that these beetles prey only on adelgids and, used as part of a complex of controls, may hold promise for establishing a long-term, natural predator-prey balance similar to that which exists in Asia.

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