WeConservePA’s logo features a stylized cone of the eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), Pennsylvania’s official state tree.
The shade-tolerant hemlock grows naturally in every Pennsylvania county but especially on relatively moist ridges, ravines, and hillsides. Vast numbers of towering, centuries-old eastern hemlocks greeted colonial settlers.
The hemlock’s dense evergreen branches shelter a variety of forest songbirds, and its seeds provide food for the birds and other wildlife. Its deep shade keeps streams cool. Its wood is used for general construction, crates, and paper pulp.
The hemlock cone is small—less than an inch long—but, from its tiny seeds, mighty trees grow. The state’s tallest hemlock today rises 148 feet in Cook Forest State Park.
