Tennessee forests have and are being impacted by conversion to agricultural lands, agricultural land management practices such as burning, nonnative forest and plant pest, man-made alterations in hydrology, climatic change, and urban sprawl. These impacts have diminished populations of different trees and shrubs, particularly smaller species, e.g., American plum in western Tennessee, although not to the extent that they are on the State List of Rare Plants. Seed orchards, primarily clonal, have been initiated in the following species for ex situ conservation of genetic resources and to provide seed for the East Tennessee State Nursery.
Eastern hemlock [Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière]
Use this citation: Mains, A., & Schlarbaum, S.E. (2024, April 24). Ensuring Eastern Hemlock in the Future of Tennessee Forests [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IPmJJYLFXQ
Eastern hemlock is still common in the eastern one-third of the state, but populations are being gradually decimated by the nonnative hemlock woolly adelgid [Adelges tsugae (Annand)]. In 1995, UT-TIP began to conserve the genetic resources in southern Appalachian and Tennessee populations, with the goal of developing seed orchards. The seed orchards will provide locally adapted seed for eventual restoration, once a solution is found to mitigate the effects of hemlock woolly adelgid. A mature seed orchard, serving the southern Appalachian mountains, now exists on the Cumberland Forest, Forest Research AgResearch and Education Center near Wartburg, Tennessee. A younger planting of hemlock clones from county resides on TVA’s Norris Reservation, which will serve the non-mountainous areas of northeastern Tennessee and the Cumberland Mountain region.