Sisters of St. Joseph Southern Pine Beetle Forest Management

Project Location: Brentwood, NY
Client: Sisters of St. Joseph

NPV prepared a Master Plan to assist The Sisters of St. Joseph sustainably manage their 200+ acre Brentwood campus. As part of implementation of this Master Plan, NPV was retained by the Sisters to assist with remediation and prevention of Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) infestation on the Brentwood campus. The SPB was discovered on the property in 2017 and a number of trees were cut down to prevent the spread. To further combat the infestation, NPV assisted the Sisters in obtaining a grant from New York State which was applied for and received in 2018. NPV was the retained to provide technical oversight for all SPB control activities which included: monitoring of the infestation; tree marking and removal of infected trees; cutting of a buffer/setback around infected trees to prevent SPB transmission; thinning to reduce the basal area of the woodland, GPS location of trees in the affected area; planting new native vegetation in impacted areas to prevent invasive species; and continuation of a five year maintenance and monitoring program. Over the past several years of monitoring, there were fewer infected trees with each inspection to the point where there were no infected trees in late 2019. During the late fall of 2019, additional thinning was completed to further reduce the basal area of the forest, and significant replanting of native species for the forest floor, sub canopy and canopy was undertaken to promote forest restoration efforts.