Mature eastern hemlock tree (Marlin)

By Glenna Hartman

Imagine it is a cold, crisp winter day. There is fresh snow on the ground and the sky is a bright robins-egg blue. You’re bundled up in your warmest winter jacket and boots. You’re hiking through the woods and look up at the bare, spidery braches that silhouette the sky. Suddenly, you realize you’ve ventured pretty deep in to the woods and find yourself in a grove of evergreen trees, their dark green needles shimmering in the sunlight. If you’re in the Northeast United States, it’s plausible that you’ve stumbled across a patch of Eastern hemlock trees, a beautiful evergreen that blesses the Northeast’s cold, dreary winters with patches of green. In this profile, you will learn how to identify an Eastern hemlock accurately, its uses to humans and animals, and about threats the tree faces.