A Forest for the Future

Brad Adderley is well known as a tenacious lawyer, but what is less well known about Appleby’s managing partner in Bermuda, however, is that he also loves cedars. “I’m Bermudian,” he says, “I always liked cedar trees. I’ve got cedar trees where I live. I actually like the old-fashioned ones where the cedar trunks are thicker. The new ones, the trunks are thinner.” Inspired by the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Trillion Trees campaign, Appleby funded a “100 Cedar Trees” planting project in May 2024, whereby 100 endemic cedar trees were planted by Appleby staff at LF Wade International Airport as a way to give back to Bermuda. This has created the island’s first endemic cedar forest since the devastating cedar blight of 1946–1953 when, according to the Department for Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), ninety-five percent of Bermuda cedars were killed by introduced juniper scale insects.

Planting this many juvenile cedar trees at an international airport, and giving them the best chance of survival, is no mean feat. It involved support from Bermuda Skyport president Aaron Adderley, assistance from the airport’s landscapers, ACE Landscaping, and instruction from OBMI landscape architect Jennifer Davidson. Davidson had designed the original landscaping when the airport was built. They all jumped at the chance to plant Bermuda’s first cedar forest in seventy years; however, the first challenge was sourcing the actual cedars themselves. “One-hundred cedar tree saplings is a lot,” says Davidson, but between herself, Brad Adderley and ACE, they managed to source them. Next, was finding the best location. “Cedars are not really front line. You don’t find them on the beach,” she explains. “One of the considerations as to where they go is looking at where you would typically find them in nature.” As the planting site was an airport, they also had to consider security and “all sorts of FAA regulations.”

In order to create the vision of a cedar forest, the majority of the saplings were planted together instead of dotted around the property, and they agreed that along the fence separating the long-term parking from the terminal building was the best spot. “If the wind came from the northwest,” Davidson says, “you have the old airport, so that would break the force of storm winds and give them, certainly as young trees, a better chance of survival.” Small collections of cedars have also been planted in “high profile places,” such as near the arrival and departure areas and along the pond at the back of the short-term parking lot. “We identified nice-looking trees that would then be representative that people would see coming in and out of the airport. We also looked at other places where you could really create that cedar forest, where plants were still high visibility,” explains Davidson. And herein lay another priority: impact. “It’s good for tourists to see, it’s good for Bermudians to see,” says Adderley, who adds that the airport was ideal because “more people in Bermuda get to enjoy them.”

The entire Appleby Bermuda staff were invited to plant the trees, which was important as the trees were a gift from the employees to the airport. Planting a successful cedar forest, however, takes more than a hole in the ground. Soil preparation is vital, says Davidson. “The important thing is to have a mixture of good soil, but also native soil. You don’t want to spoil the plants so much that the roots hit the horrible stuff that’s on the side,” she laughs. “I think they did a good job in getting the tree holes prepared and the planting mix that things were being planted into.” Almost two years on, both Adderley and Davidson are delighted with how well the trees are doing. “I love them. I would do it again,” Adderley says. “I literally fly every ten days so for me, I notice them all the time.”

“When I went to look at them it was after we had two hurricanes and I thought they were looking fantastic,” adds Davidson. “One of the hurricanes came from the south and the southwest, so it would have gotten a lot of wind.” She admits that a couple were looking a “little bit sick,” but when you’re doing a planting plan, you always allow for ten percent to fail. These cedars are beating that budget.

Bermuda cedar conservation is vital for the island, not just because they are endemic trees, but also because wildlife relies on them for their survival. “You have the berries,” says Davidson. “Native and endemic birds would be attracted to them, particularly the bluebirds.” Endemic trees are also low maintenance because they have adapted to Bermuda’s environment over thousands of years. “They tend not to need a lot of care or spraying,” she says. “They just have to get on with it; so I think that some of the native and endemic plants are really underutilised in landscapes, and they don’t have the advantage of being showy. They don’t have big red flowers like hibiscus or pretty pink flowers like oleanders, but they can make, and are scaled to, the Bermuda landscape.”

For Adderley, this is only the beginning: “I’m planning more cedar trees. I’m planning on going back and adding more to it to keep it going.” An idea Davidson has for the forests’ future is to underplant the cedars, once they are tall enough, with endemic snowberries. “There’s still the opportunity for the evolution of a little ecosystem for that cedar forest area,” she says, adding that the snowberries grow to around five or six feet and their berries are important for migrating birds. “For me, my standout is that we can take something that is just an open piece of grass and make it have real impact and meaning,” she continues, and what could be more meaningful to this island than its endemic cedar? “They’re part of Bermuda,” says Adderley.

Timeline of the Cedar Blight

August 27, 1945: First official notice of cedar dieback at Chelston, Paget; initial uncertainty about the cause.
Summer 1945: Experts observed white pinpricks on cedar branches; identified as Diaspis visci, the juniper scale.
1944: Discovery of Oyster-shell scale (Lepidosaphes newsteadi) near Harrington Sound, imported via conifer shipments from California in 1942.
1945: Bermuda’s cedar infestation worsens—scales spread around Castle Harbour, Tucker’s Town, and Walsingham.
Late 1940s: Attempts at control included spraying, importing predators, parasites, and beetles to combat scale insects; initial efforts ineffective.
February 1947: Dr. W.R. Thompson arrives from Canada to lead biological control efforts with predators like ladybird beetles and wasps.
1947: Multiple shipments of predatory insects (ladybirds, wasps, beetles) from California, Trinidad, and other countries; hundreds of thousands released, but scale continued spreading.
December 15, 1947: Update shows scale in new areas, killing approximately five square miles of cedar; public concern escalates.
1948: Continued spread of scale; reforestation plans initiated; hurricane strikes Bermuda (September 13 and October 7), exacerbating damage and exposing the severity of cedar destruction.
December 1948: Thompson and experts return, emphasizing the importance of predator and parasite release; thousands of insects imported and released.
Mid-1949: Establishment of Bermuda’s insect breeding lab; massive replanting efforts begin with volunteers; continued attempt at biological control.
1950s: Despite efforts, the cedar infestation persists; extensive tree removal and fires, often uncontrolled, further diminish cedar populations.
1952: Law passed allowing cedar removal on private and public land; landscape increasingly deforested.
1953: Replanting of various species including cedars; the cedars remaining are heavily infested or dying.
1959: Cedar trees severely diminished; survey finds infestation on all remaining cedar trees.
1971: Only about 1% of the original cedar population survives in Bermuda.
Overall conclusion: Despite unprecedented efforts, including spraying, importing predators, and reforestation, the scale infestation led to the near-complete destruction of Bermuda’s cedar forests, marking one of the largest biological control failures in history.