HONESDALE, PA — A pair of invasive insects posing a deadly threat to our region’s forests will be the focus of two programs sponsored by the Wayne-Lackawanna Forest Landowners Association this weekend. Dr. Sarah Johnson, forest health specialist for the northern region of the state’s Bureau of Forestry, Forest Health Division, will provide up-to-the-minute information about the hemlock woolly adelgid and the emerald ash borer in a lecture presentation on Friday, September 16 at the Park Street Complex, 648 Park St. The talk will be followed the next morning by a woods walk at the Florence Shelly Preserve in Thompson.

Friday evening’s program, titled “Imminent Insect Threats,” will include discussion of intervention strategies and recent control efforts aimed at the woolly adelgid at the Woodbourne Forest and Wildlife Preserve near Montrose. During the two-hour walk through the hemlock-rich Thompson preserve Saturday morning, Johnson will focus on adelgid detection and control. Participants will meet at the preserve’s main parking lot on PA Route 171, between Thompson and Susquehanna.