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To hold the line, people like Kara Ermatinger and Grant Trukowski spend their winter walking. And walking. Up and down dunes, dodging melting snow and ice puddles.
“This week has been pretty nice though with the warming up, says Trukowksi. We’re not really trudging through snow, but still kind of battling the elements and the wind especially the last few days.”
Trukowski and Ermatinger work for the Mason-Lake Conservation District. Their full-time job from December through March is looking for the hemlock woolly adelgid or HWA.
The invasive bug from Japan can kill a tree within four years. It does this by sucking nutrients from the host tree.