The Wasque reservation on Chappaquiddick will soon be closed for at least a month so the Trustees of Reservations can conduct mitigation efforts against Southern pine beetles.
The Trustees, which owns the nature preserve, announced in a press release it will begin thinning Wasque’s mature pitch pine forests on Feb. 28 in a project funded by a $75,000 grant from the MassWildlife Habitat Management Grant Program.
“Without this work, we run a greater risk of an infestation,” Darci Schofield, Islands director for the Trustees, said in the release. “Wasque’s pitch pine forests are currently very dense, creating ideal conditions for the Southern pine beetle to spread and kill many mature trees.”
Southern pine beetles are insects that have become a scourge on Vineyard woodlands. The females of the species chew into pine trees and carve tunnels inside to lay eggs and release pheromones to attract males, a process that ultimately overwhelms the plants. The beetles have encroached on various parts of the Island, and in December, forced the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation to close trails in West Chop Woods in Vineyard Haven because of a large number of trees killed by the beetles. They have also been found in some residential areas. More than 2,000 pitch pine and white pine trees were infected or deemed at risk, and were cut down, at the 69-acre Phillips Preserve, near Lake Tashmoo in Tisbury, in 2024. And there have been infestations found in Manuel F. Correllus State Forest.
While the Trustees of Reservations has not detected the beetles on Wasque, the conservation group is removing pitch pines on about 28 acres as a proactive measure to protect the habitat. Sheriff’s Meadow also thinned the woods at the Caroline Tuthill Preserve in Edgartown to enable the mature pine forest to survive a potential outbreak.
While the reserve is closed, foresters will reduce tree density on the property to “healthy recommended levels” on 28 acres of land. The release stated that smaller branches and crowns will be masticated onsite, while larger logs will be “stacked in designated areas at least 50 feet from boundaries and roads to decompose naturally.”
Signs will be posted at the reservation and trail entrances to let people know about the temporary closure.