AdkAction and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Ranger School are testing whether forestry log landings on working lands in the Adirondacks can be seeded to grow native habitat to support bees, butterflies, and other vital pollinators.
AdkAction is partnering with the ESF Ranger School to explore whether active forestry sites known as “log landings” can become habitat for native pollinators.
Log landings are small clearings created during forestry operations where timber is temporarily staged before transport. These sites are often heavily disturbed, with compacted soils and layers of bark, woodchips, and woody debris left behind after harvesting.
Rather than allowing these areas to slowly regenerate on their own, this pilot project asks a simple question:
Can log landings be intentionally restored to support pollinators and biodiversity on working forest lands?
In May 2026, AdkAction staff and board members traveled to the ESF Ranger School campus in Wanakena to establish three experimental pollinator planting plots at two separate log landings.
Using AdkAction’s Adirondack Pollinator Seed Mix, blended with sand and annual oats to improve seed distribution and establishment, the team tested different site preparation methods to better understand what conditions may support successful pollinator habitat growth.
The three plots include:
Intervention Plot:
An area heavily covered with woodchips and debris where surface material was raked away to expose soil before seeding.
No-Intervention Plot (Same Landing):
A sandy, rocky plot seeded directly without soil preparation.
No-Intervention Plot (Second Landing):
A second untreated plot at a separate log landing with similar site conditions.
Forestry remains one of the Adirondack Park’s most important renewable industries, and forest management practices continue to evolve through research, experience, and innovation. This project represents an opportunity to explore how working landscapes can better support biodiversity while continuing to serve the industries and communities that rely on them.
For AdkAction, projects like this are an important part of how we work. Short-term pilot projects allow us to respond quickly to new opportunities, test creative ideas alongside community partners, and learn through real-world experimentation. Some projects remain small but meaningful on their own, while others become proof of concept for broader adoption and long-term impact.
Throughout the growing season, AdkAction and the ESF Ranger School will monitor these planting sites together to better understand how pollinator species establish under different conditions. We look forward to sharing what we learn with landowners, forestry professionals, and communities interested in supporting pollinators on working lands throughout the Adirondacks.
This timeline highlights completed and planned activities to date.
When Mike Federice reached out to AdkAction about collaborating on a pollinator planting project within an active forest management area, specifically at a log landing, there was not much convincing
Saturday, June 6 | 9 AM – 12 PM | Uihlein Farm Greenhouse, 281 Bear Cub Road, Lake Placid AdkAction is excited to announce the return of the Adirondack Pollinator
Volunteers invited to help plant 5,500 native plants on June 20 What was once a closed landfill in the Town of Indian Lake is being reimagined as something entirely new:
Pollinators have been part of AdkAction’s project portfolio in one form or another since our founding. Here are some of our other projects, both active and completed, that work to address the problem of pollinator habitat decline.
AdkAction is partnering with the Town of Indian Lake to transform a closed, capped landfill into an eight-acre native pollinator habitat. This three-year demonstration project will test how unused landfill sites across the Adirondacks can be restored to support bees, butterflies, and other vital pollinators.
We empower people to take individual and collective action to ensure a future where pollinators thrive, native habitat abounds, and Adirondack residents and visitors are engaged pollinator advocates.