These are the alerts you need to know

We will be conducting a prescribed fire on Wednesday April 17, 2024. We will start at 7am and will be finished by dark.We will be located near the intersection of New Karner Road and Old State Road in the City of Albany.Trailhead #1 will be closed until 4/18/2024.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Fire Manager, Tyler Briggs at tbriggs@albanypinebush.org. 

Starting in early March 2024, 18 acres of invasive and non-native black locust trees will be removed from a site located west of New Karner Road and just south of Pinehurst Blvd. The tree removal is the first step in restoring this site back to the pine barrens it once was.  After tree removal the site will be planted with native pine barrens plants. During this time this area is temporarily CLOSED to all public use.

Please view the interactive trail map to see the tree removal locations. 

If you have any questions or concerns about this management work, please contact Stewardship Director, Joel Hecht at 518-456-0655 or jhecht@albanypinebush.org 
 

Over the past twenty-four years the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission has been restoring wildlife habitat by selectively removing overabundant, non-native, and/or crowded trees in the preserve. The purpose of tree removal is to re-establish the globally-rare pine barrens. Work will begin during the winter of 2024 between Pinehurst Blvd and Charles Blvd west of Route 155 (New Karner Road) in Albany as shown on the attached map.

Tree removal will begin in early 2024 on 18 acres of preserve land on the west side of new Karner Road just south of Pinehurst Blvd. In early spring 2024 this site will have the tree stumps removed and will then be graded and planted with native pine bush plants.

Successful wildlife habitat management in some areas of the preserve initially requires the selective removal of invasive trees like black locust. Pitch pine and oak trees will not be removed. Heavy logging equipment is used to remove the invasive trees and stumps and the site is then graded in preparation for planting. In the spring of 2024 the site will be planted with a variety of native wildflowers and prairie grasses. Pine barrens shrubs and trees, as needed, will also eventually be added to the site. In three to five years these areas will begin to exhibit characteristics of high quality pine barrens that typify the Pine Bush.

In order to continue to meet the objectives of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission’s 2017 Management Plan Update, habitat restoration should “restore and maintain the natural plant and animal species composition of the inland pitch pine-scrub oak barrens ecosystem by continuing and expanding the Preserve’s ecological management programs”…” (APBPC 2017 Management Plan Update, p. 5).

Due to potential hazards associated with the tree removal process these 18 acres will be temporarily closed to all public use while this work is taking place. Preserve visitors are encouraged to visit the many other areas of the preserve during this time.

If you have any questions about this wildlife habitat restoration activity, please contact me at (518) 690-2773 or jhecht@albanypinebush.org. You can also visit www.AlbanyPineBush.org. for more information on habitat restoration dates, sites and trail closures.

We cannot provide a specific schedule for prescribed fires in a given area due to the unpredictability of weather and fuel conditions. If you would like to be notified the morning of a prescribed fire, please subscribe below.
 

For more information about prescribed fire please visit www.AlbanyPineBush.org/prescribedfire.
On that page you will see links to sign up for notification alerts or leave feedback at the bottom of the page. People can sign up to get email notifications through either of these links.

Hunting, fishing and trapping are recreational activities that are carefully regulated in the preserve and across NYS.

Please be aware that ticks, including deer ticks (also known as black-legged ticks), are present in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve as well as other natural areas in our region.
 

As stated on the NYS Department of Health’s website: Ticks can spread disease. Not all ticks can cause disease and not all bites will make you sick, but as these diseases become more common it's important to learn how to prevent a bite, how to remove a tick and what to do if you think you could have a tick-borne disease. Lyme disease is the most common disease spread by ticks in New York. However, there are other serious diseases spread by ticks including Powassan virus disease, a rare but often serious disease caused by a virus that is spread by the bite of infected ticks and was recently detected in ticks sampled in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve. 

For more information on ticks, the diseases they carry, and tick bite prevention please visit: https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/lyme/. 

It is recommended that all visitors to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve wear pants with long socks that can be pulled up over their pant legs and shirts that are tucked into the waistband.