The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation will pay $2.2 million to cut trees decimated by the southern pine beetle on Long Island’s South Fork, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.

State officials will award a three-year contract to cut and later chip and burn dead trees in Hither Hills State Park in Montauk and Napeague State Park , according to the governor’s office and interim Parks Commissioner Randy Simons. The work will start Nov. 1.

"One only has to look west to California or north to Canada to see the devastating impacts of wildfires. This is a safety issue," Hochul said in a statement . "It's why we are expediting the next phase of work to lessen the likelihood of a wildfire starting from a car, cigarette, campfire fire or sparks from the railroad, and to

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