Trees killed by southern pine beetle are set ablaze at Napeague State Park

State officials on Friday began burning the remains of thousands of trees killed by the southern pine beetle in Napeague State Park, part of a plan to reduce the area’s wildfire risk.

Over the past few months, contractors have culled more than 5,600 pitch pine trees across 55 acres in the South Fork park, creating piles of wood that will be either burned or carted off site, parks officials said last week. 

Officials estimated around 80% of Napeague’s pitch pine tree population, or about 40,000 trees, have been affected by the beetle.

On Friday, light winds made it optimal for the state Department of Environmental Conservation to start burning piles of wood near the park’s Promised Land Trail. Around 30 staff helped in the effort, which cleared 72 of the more than 400 piles in that area, said Bryan Gallagher, a forest ranger with the DEC who was leading the burn operation. Future burns will occur until the piles are gone.

“When all these trees came down, it was like a pile of pick-up sticks — except the pick-up sticks were the size of trees,” Gallagher said.

Crews used drip torches to light the fires and then used leaf blowers to feed oxygen into the blaze.

Nearby residents were warned of the burning, which produced some light smoke over the area, Gallagher said.

East Hampton Deputy Supervisor David Lys said residents who live near the park and east of Napeague worry a wildfire there could cut off any escape from danger. Just east of the community is a narrow stretch of land, flanked by Napeague Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean, that links the area to Montauk. 

“By removing the dead pine trees through a controlled method, we’ll decrease the fears that a lot of the residents have had for years,” Lys said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last year the state would spend $2.2 million for tree removal at Napeague State Park and Hither Hills State Park in Montauk, Newsday previously reported. That announcement came after a football field-sized brush fire in Napeague last July temporarily closed a stretch of Montauk Highway before being extinguished.

The southern pine beetle can kill a pine tree in two to four months, creating more fuel for wildfires. The beetles appeared in Suffolk County in 2014 and began attacking trees at Napeague in 2021, Newsday previously reported.

Destroying the trees helps rid the area of the beetle, Gallagher said. State officials hope to conduct prescribed fires on the property soon, which will create the conditions necessary for the pitch pine forest to repopulate.

“We are going to make a new forest and it's going to be great,” Becky Sibner, a state parks department forest health specialist, said at a public meeting on Tuesday.

Michael A. Rupolo Sr. contributed to this story.