Cathedral: The Fight to Save the Ancient Hemlocks of Cook Forest

The story of the efforts to save the hemlock trees of Cook Forest State Park, Pennsylvania, which are under attack by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), a destructive insect discovered in Cook Forest in 2013. The insect has already killed thousands of trees in the eastern United States.
The documentary includes interviews with park staff and is narrated by Old-Growth Forest Network founder Joan Maloof. The film takes the viewer on a journey through the forest in all seasons and shows the important work being done by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.

[@michaelbalogh8684]

I just watched your documentary on Cook Forest old growth hemlocks. I also just returned from a camping trip there this past week. I hadn't been there in fifty years and the park is as majestic and awe inspiring as ever. I would hate to see it disappear as some places have. Please continue your fight to preserve these majestic trees and their habitat.

[@karenjohnson2766]

Thank you for this video and your work. Unfortunately, the background music was louder than need be and was difficult to hear everything said. Beautiful forest.

[@rt36crazyfists]

Many don't realize, many MUSHROOMS associate with hemlock trees. Lots of truffles e.g. Elaphomyces primarily occur with Hemlock in the NE. Many rodents and other mammals depend on Elaphomyces, and other truffles and mushrooms.

[@old-growthforestnetwork174]

Very interesting - thank you for sharing this information!

[@palmplanet]

Incredible film, hemlocks are my favorite native trees to the Northeast. This has happened in the D.C. area too and Shenandoah National Park, we have lost numerous hemlocks to the HWA, it is devastating. Hopefully we can put in the work needed to save these magnificent "redwoods of the east," and the projects at Cook Forest give me hope. Thanks to all who are helping to save these incredible trees, we owe you.

[@dustyscott3066]

Here in the Ohio Hocking Hills the Adelgids are found. Considerable efforts to control them. Hoping the latest polar vortex knocked many down. Keep up the valiant efforts.

[@jenniferpangallo8947]

Where I've grown up & lived for 38yrs. Lots of good memories in the forest

[@ae-eh6ox]

Thank you for your hard work and effort . you should take great pride in your efforts.

[@johngetch7396]

I was at the susquehannock hemlock this past weekend it's an amazing tree I took the hike with Dale 3 years ago after an informative presentation this week I took a friend who hasn't seen it before he said is it weird that I'm excited about finding a tree I said I'm excited and I've seen it before !

[@russellcuster8684]

I go to cook forest every year. It's beautiful walking thru it.

[@jamesf5007]

YES! I'm a former area resident, currently in nyc for the past 7 years. I was hoping this would be up online eventually. THANK YOU!!

[@connormckean9765]

About a quarter mile away from my house, which is in Western Pennsylvania I saw those 2 exact kinds of salamanders you guys showed in your video haha. Besides that lol this was an awesome heartwarming video ❤️

[@faschwank]

All the hemlock trees in the Sparta Glen in Sparta, NJ were killed by this same blight. It was turned into a wasteland, and then destroyed by a flash flood. It has since been replanted with other species of tall evergreen. Will never be the same. Do what you can to save this rare gem.

[@sirnuggets9666]

I'll be visiting Cook Forest sometime this summer, I just hope it won't be my last time seeing some of these incredible trees before they're gone forever

[@markmark2080]

One can only imagine how sad the Chestnut Blight was a little over 100 years ago...

[@sirnuggets9666]

American chestnuts may yet make a comeback, there are several nursery's up in Canada and in America that are raising blight resistant American chestnuts

[@washnon]

@@sirnuggets9666 the american chestnut is still alive it is going to come back and not the asian one either im talking real deal american chestnut

[@sirnuggets9666]

@@washnon yes that's awesome!

[@connormckean9765]

Fr

[@renee1741]

the cathdral film link doesn't seem to be working(?).. I hope that you're able to save these beautiful trees! Thank you for all you are doing!!

[@HpBeck_Fieldrecordings]

Beautiful🙏What more can words say, the pictures speak for themselves.Thanks for showing us this wonderfull and magical place.Greetings from Germany

[@gwheyduke]

The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned book of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables The Overstory by Richard Powers

[@TheHolyMongolEmpire]

Glad they're being saved. Was just there again today and I noticed a lot of dead trees, one of my favorite groves was completely wiped out today, about 3 acres. Not sure if it was the bug or a wind storm.

[@connormckean9765]

Damn:(

[@lonm6433]

Awesome video.

[@natewhelden4463]

Beautiful short film and informative. Curious if anyone knows how it's going trying to save these trees from HWA in 2022?

[@ronward3949]

Give thanks and praises to the Old Growth Forests, Knowing many others will join in the Chorus, These Forests so grand and sublime, They form amazing canopies grand designs. Standing so strong through Time, Granting us Life Forms that love to climb, Well up In the canopy, absorbing the rains providing cover for the trees, for the network of interbranching branches, absorb the sunlight creating chances, fir Native birds make their nests, finding a security to provide their best, Being there for so many years, Their statures robust, thick barked sincere. Allow for their Santity, Old Growth persists for this remedy. For their Grace's Hemlock wisely portrayed, Times closest relatives surviving, So many years enduring and providing!

[@brianhand6029]

Ryan and Dale are wonderful stewards of this historic forest. For historians please note the role of Maj. M. I. McCright of DuBois, PA in the est. of the State Park. He is a fascinating character...

[@mint234567898765432]

Wonder if anyone remembers the old campground known as "Piney Oaks" on Breezemont Drive Unfortunately it was private land and some idiot cut down the old trees. Mom and Dad would take the family there every summer back in the 60's & 70's.

[@jeppeporsing8479]

Hey folks and thanks for a lovely video. Good project you got going here - I hope I can come and join in on it one day. ... in the beginning, there is a sequence of a lady introducing us to the forest. She is wearing a vest. A beautiful one. Anyone who happens to know the manufacturer of it???

[@jaystrock613]

I used to live in Ohio and me and dad would go camping at Cook forest. I loved it. I live in Western North Carolina now and our Hemloks are dieing.

[@Freesingskills19]

what a majical place!!!

[@silverjinglebobspur1]

Would old growth white pine, with its release of perines, emit enough of a natural pesticide?

[@westonmatthews5501]

I hate to say this but I am not sure how an operation of this magnitude is sustainable. Anyway, good luck and hopefully a resistant hemlock is naturally selected in the near future!

[@danbrown6941]

The only way forward is to try my friend #FightForNature

[@russj.5296]

Sadly, I don't think chemical treatments will be able to outsmart nature. I think that with time, Hemlocks will eventually return. However, those that have some level of resistance must be protected as a valuable genetic resistant seed source.

[@westonmatthews5501]

@@russj.5296 I think you are totally right! Continued logging during the chestnut blight may have played a large part in why a resistant batch of trees was never found. Hopefully we won’t make the same mistakes with the hemlocks!

[@russj.5296]

@@westonmatthews5501 Yes, back in the great depression, when the CCC were becoming established, the workers cut down nearly every American Chestnut tree on their lands (which covered many hundreds of thousands of acres, together), as they thought that the incoming blight would kill of the trees anyway. They thought they might as well use the wood rather than it "go to waste". However, what they did not understand was that many Chestnuts they cut down could've had genetic resistance to the blight, and if they left them alone, they might have made a natural comeback. However, in the end, you got to weigh the benefits. Many Chestnuts would die and (even though their wood would become nutrients in the soil) be "wasted", so many thought they ought to at least save the wood. However, what I think would have been best way to preserve some genetics, while saving the wood, was to leave 10 - 20 percent of the american chestnuts on the lands. This way, if there are 1000 chestnuts on the land, and 15 percent was saved, which would make 150 trees, and only 2-4 percent were estimated to have some sort of resistance, then around 2-5 trees would have resistance. Though it sounds like a little, I believe 2-5 per every thousand would have been enough to help them make a comeback within 200 years. Now, because of the cutting, they probably won't make a comeback for another 500 years, I estimate. Now, with the Hemlocks, I am happy to see that I have not yet heard of any widespread logging of healthy/dead ones just to "salvage" the wood.

[@bobgardin2347]

Watched for a few minutes and found it interesting. But have to stop to find out where in Pennsylvania Cook forest is, what watershed, and other geographical context. Why wasn't this put up front with a map?

[@jenniferpangallo8947]

Born and raised here 38yrs. It's technically called Cooksburgh.

[@zerozilch]

North american cheastnuts were a way of life before logging . People seem to only buy land for mineral rights kill all trees an resale these days.

[@jenkins2162]

Logging had nothing to do with what happened to the American Chestnut. A blight from Asia caused their decline and almost extinction.

[@zerozilch]

@@jenkins2162 yes sir I do know this .

[@chinoodin4735]

Can you smell the sweetness of hemlock in a forest far from any maddening crowd?

[@kurtjohnson1457]

I’m curious does this blight affect western hemlock as well, or mountain hemlock?

[@ksero1000]

Where can I find this pesticide for the ones I am trying to grow?

[@jaystrock613]

The Cooks harvested most of the trees.

[@debrapaulino918]

Excellent presentation. The violin is obtrusive though. I learned much. Thank you.

[@SubscriptionToLife]

Why not oversupply the Hemlock with nitrogen since they can store unusually large amounts of N since the insect feeds on and starves the tree of N ?

[@notthatguy4703]

Difficult to implement on a large scale, especially without other ecological impacts. For singular trees or small stands there are more effective strategies for protection against pest, but once again, dificult to implement on a large scale.

[@marblemill]

@@notthatguy4703 high nutrients are severely detrimental to understory plants as it can cause significant disease

[@jamesf5007]

Is this purchasable on DVD or something?

[@old-growthforestnetwork174]

Hi James F, this is a woefully late reply to your question - so sorry! If you are still interested, you could try contacting the filmmakers, Melissa and David Rohm, about a DVD copy at www.wildexcellencefilms.com/contact-filmmakers. Thank you for your interest!

[@moonmunster]

Laricobious nigrinus is the ticket. They save the hemlocks around my property.

[@washnon]

The blight was people not bugs,edit Im so sick by this ,what can we do to help?

[@svendb7]

3:30 what tree is this?

[@svendb7]

and at 2:58!

[@williamgibbons9221]

Rhododendrons

[@svendb7]

@@williamgibbons9221 it’s superb. How old do you think a rhododendron that size might be? I’m a newbie when it comes to flowering plants and shrubs.

[@BookhyphenBound]

what about the indigenous peoples?

[@ramongarcia7531]

Is the soil safe for walking with small dogs? So much/many pesticides on the ground... I'm concerned...

[@monkeymanwasd1239]

should old growth trees be thinned to improve forest health

[@NatureShy]

Old growth forests never need thinning, they are already at a healthy natural state as far as tree density goes. Only previously cut and logged forests (second and third growth re-planted forests) may need thinning because generally previously logged forests are not healthy and usually grow back far too dense.

[@monkeymanwasd1239]

@@NatureShy even old growth trees shade each other out, its just a matter of time.