Page 20 - Tree Line - North Carolina Forestry Association - First Quarter 2024

(FRA), a selective resistance-screening and breeding program based on the success and methodologies of The American Chestnut Foundation.
At FRA, Dr. Hain and others began propagating potentially resistant hemlocks at a lab and nursery in Waynesville, NC to test for heritable traits of HWA resistance. “After we find an individual tree that looks healthy where everything else is dead and dying, we collect cuttings from it that we root back in Waynesville,” Dr. Hain said in a 2016 Our State article by Eleanor Spicer Rice. Later, FRA incorporated traditional and molecular breeding techniques into the program.
A Tireless Advocate
When Dr. Hain retired from NCSU in 2011, he devoted his time to further building the FRA and advocating for
state and federal legislation on invasive species. On Forestry Days at the North Carolina Legislature, Margot Wallston of the Hemlock Restoration Initiative says that Dr. Hain “could be found walking the halls as a real-life Lorax committed to the goal of raising support for tree resistance
and breeding research and advocating for a comprehensive forest health initiative.”
Throughout his tenure at NCSU,
Dr. Hain trained 34 graduate students, including current NCSU faculty Dr. Kelly Oten and Dr. Robert Jetton. In 1995, the Southern Forest Insect Work Conference presented him with the A. D. Hopkins award for his outstanding record of service to Southern forest entomology. In 2011,
he was awarded the Order of the Longleaf Pine, one of the highest state honors a North Carolinian can receive, and in 2018, Dr. Hain received the NC Governor’s Forest Conservationist of the Year Award.
Although he worked hard, a colleague remembers that Dr. Hain enjoyed kicking back with others for a beer after work. He liked these gatherings so much that he organized a standing “Friday Afternoon Seminar” to bring together faculty, graduate students, and staff at a bar near the NCSU campus in Raleigh.
After his death in 2023, a group of his friends and colleagues held “Fred Hain’s Ultimate Friday Afternoon Seminar” where they shared stories about Dr. Hain while enjoying food and drinks at a local bar.
Dr. Hain’s story continues today through FRA’s goal of solving the threats posed by invasive pests with the aim of achieving long-term forest stability.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caroline Lord is the Outreach and Communications Manager at the Hemlock Restoration Initiative in Asheville, NC. She recently graduated from Clemson University with a Master in Resilient Urban Design. Before joining HRI, she worked as a freelance writer, editor, and public speaking coach.
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18 ncforestry.org / FIRST QUARTER 2024