Elkins Friends of Trees

04/01/2026

Enjoying a fantastic workshop with Wonder and Grow’s Valerie Hart on ways to enjoy the woods with wonder! The second lecture of the Tree Talks series was powerful.

03/18/2026

Mysteries of the tent caterpillar solved! Who knew?

Those white silk tents in the forks of your cherry and apple trees appeared this week. They're full of caterpillars. And your first instinct is wrong.

Eastern Tent Caterpillars are native. They've been in North America for as long as the trees have. They appear every March in silken communal tents built in the crotches of fruit trees — wild cherry, apple, crabapple. The tents are conspicuous and alarming. Dozens of hairy caterpillars streaming out of a white web looks like an infestation.

It's not. It's a food delivery system for every nesting bird in your yard.

A single tent colony contains forty to three hundred caterpillars. Each one is a calorie-dense, soft-bodied, slow-moving protein packet. Chickadees, titmice, orioles, cuckoos, and at least twenty other species feed on tent caterpillars during the critical nesting period when they need the most protein.

Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos are among the few birds that eat hairy caterpillars — and tent caterpillar outbreaks are what trigger cuckoo nesting in an area. No caterpillars, no cuckoos.

The trees survive. A healthy cherry or apple tree can lose most of its leaves to tent caterpillars in spring and fully releaf by June. The damage looks dramatic in April and is invisible by July. Spraying kills the caterpillars — and eliminates the primary food source for birds that are feeding nestlings right now.

🌿 This week:

- If you see silk tents in cherry, apple, or crabapple trees, leave them alone — the birds will find them within days
- If you absolutely must remove a tent, do it by hand at dawn (caterpillars are inside the tent before sunrise) and relocate the branch to a wild area
- Do not spray Bt or any pesticide on tent caterpillars — Bt kills all caterpillar species, including monarchs and luna moths
- The tents dissolve on their own by mid-May

The silky mess in your fruit tree is the grocery delivery your nesting birds ordered. It arrives every March. Let it. 🌿

03/16/2026

Get out there!! So many cool events sponsored by the WV Nature Conservancy! Can you believe that Elkins is fortunate to be the state chapter home of this extraordinary international conservation organization!

03/15/2026

Hard to believe that it has been five years since an entire grove of trees at Glendale Park was planted as part of an AmeriCorps project led by our great member Eric. Our city parks continue to flourish thanks to the great relationship between the Elkins Tree Board, Parks and Rec, AFNHA and WV Division of Forestry. Our volunteers are so important to us as well, which this event included a crew from Mon Power.

03/15/2026

Join the Elkins Tree Board and the Kump Education Center for our next Tree Talk Wednesday, April 1 at the Kump House! Valerie Hart, Co-Founder of Wonder & Grow, will lead Exploring the Woods with Wonder: Multi-Generational Ways to Share the Outdoors, an interactive workshop designed to spark curiosity and connection with the natural world.

03/14/2026

Arborists with Mitchell Tree Service have been busy assessing trees on city property and pruning them this past month. The work is funded by a WV Division of Forestry Community Tree Grant awarded to the Elkins Tree Board.

03/12/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/17j3Nou4Dw/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Mark your calendars 📅!

Our annual volunteer tree planting event in celebration of Earth Day will take place on Saturday, April 18, starting at 9AM! Join us to help restore a biologically important ecosystem in Canaan Valley🌲

The tree planting will take place of Timberline Road, near the fishing pier. Please see the event page for more details: https://ow.ly/SZ6050YrYNC

03/06/2026

This is a great opportunity!!

Calling all nature lovers! 🌱🐝🍎

We’re hosting two FREE workshops on fruit tree grafting and pollinator gardens. Come learn from local experts and take home tips you can use in your own yard. Details in the flyer!

03/05/2026

What an amazing Tree Talk tonight at the Kump Education Center! Lacy Rucker, USDA Forest Service, spoke on “Tale of Two Salamanders” inspiring so many great questions from the audience. Put the next two on your calendar: April 1: “Exploring the Woods with Wonder”and May 6: “Forest Invaders-How Invasives Wreak Woodland Havoc.” Many thanks to the speaker and the audience.

02/14/2026

If you want to participate in the Audubon Backyard bird count, here’s some info.

Red-bellied woodpecker

11/01/2025

It was a busy day for the Elkins Tree Board and Friends of Trees as we prepared the Elkins Tree Nursery for the winter. Weeded and mulched to help the young trees thrive. Check out before and after shot to see what we accomplished!

10/17/2025

This looks like a wonderful event!