Can climate change help resolve the very problem it helped create? Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an invasive insect in the United States that’s threatening the Eastern Hemlock and Carolina Hemlock trees. Warmer than average winters have assisted the insects northward conquest, however, increasingly frequent cold snaps from polar vortexes can effectively kill adelgid populations.

To learn more about this phenomenon, we met with Carole Cheah from the CT Ag Experimental Station. She took us on an adventure through the northwestern forests of Connecticut, where she studies the adelgid’s response to varying winter climates. Carole and other researchers are also trying to find other ways, such as biological control, to limit the spread of HWA.

Local Motives original score composed and produced by William Lindsay.