Join the Conservation Committee and our friends at ACA for barberry removal
May 31st
Archives for May 2025
Sign up now to Host a weekend at Nawakwa
Please check the calendar below for the weekends that are open for hosting. Your contribution adds so much to the club. Midweek hosting is also available. Please read the info below.
Thanks to those who have hosted already and to those who are soon to host!
Hosting Committee ’25
Moth Spraying Today – Monday 5/12 !
Hello camps,
Just a heads up- there will be spraying happening today around 5-ish pm to help prevent feeding damage from the spongy moth caterpillars. The time the spraying is taking place is a rough estimate; it could happen before or after this time.
If you happen to be here at your camp around this time, please be prepared to head inside while this is occurring.
All the best,
Kat Lentini
Group Camps Office Manager | Harriman State Park
Notice: Second round of spraying for Harriman 5/12-16
Notice of Spongy Moth Treatment
The first treatment was Wednesday May 7, second treatment will follow during the week of May 12- 16 (dry weather dependent).
In the Group Camps meeting we were notified of the spongy moth treatment scheduled for this year. The spraying will take place during a weekday, and will not affect Saturday or Sunday use of camp.
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Hi Directors and Camp Support staff,
As discussed at the recent Camp Director’s Meeting, the park plans to do treatments by helicopter for spongy moth control again this year. The project’s goal is to protect canopy trees at your camps from spongy moth caterpillar defoliation. The work is weather dependent. It must be done during dry weather and will be scheduled for weekdays. Each camp will receive two treatments applied 4-7 days apart. We aim to have this project wrapped up in next 10-14 days.
We are using Btk, a naturally occurring soil bacteria, that is effective at killing spongy moth caterpillars. The product is not harmful to people but we recommend that anyone in the camps either vacate briefly or remain indoors until the fine mist settles on vegetation. The contractor is spraying at a rate of ½ gallon per acre, so the material is barely noticeable during or after spraying. Spraying itself does not take long – and will amount to a few passes over the camp.
It is difficult to predict the exact timing of the work given it is weather dependent. The current forecast may allow for a first treatment tomorrow afternoon, but we will need to make that call tomorrow morning. I will send email updates to this group and the camp office. I know internet connectivity is a problem for some areas, so we will send Natural Resource staff to your camps 1-2 hours prior to spraying to alert staff about the exact treatment time window.
Thanks for your cooperation and flexibility on this. If you have any questions, feel free to call or text me at the cell below.
Thanks,
Ed
Ed McGowan
Assistant District Manager, Hudson Valley Environmental Stewardship District
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
Bear Mountain, NY 10524
(845) 925-2142 | edwin.mcgowan@parks,ny.gov
Today 5/7 Spraying
Hi everyone, just want to let you all know that the park will be spraying for the spongy moths this afternoon and distributing the substance via helicopter. They gave us incredibly short notice, so we’re doing everything we can to share this information with members to make sure that no one is on site
The weather has improved to allow us to do a treatment this afternoon. Our stewardship crew has been making the rounds over the past few hours to alert camp staff to this. The contractor is aiming to treat all camps this afternoon. Assuming they are successful, the second treatment will be sometime next week.
I apologize for the short notice. I was in the field with the crew with limited cell service.
