State conservation officials have made plans to cut down a stand of pest-ridden pine trees in the northwestern section of the Manuel F. Correllus state forest, after finding an infestation of the southern pine beetle earlier this summer.

Foresters with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation found the invasive beetle that has been plaguing Island trees in a pocket of dying pitch pines in July.

This is the third infestation of the beetle, which kills pitch pine by burrowing in and feasting on the trees’ living tissue, found on the Vineyard this year. In mid-August, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation began a project to clear around three-acres of infected trees at their Phillips Preserve in Tisbury, and the Land Bank has since given Sheriff’s Meadow permission to clear roughly 30 infected trees at Ripley’s Field Preserve.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation is working with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program on the tree cutting work and does not yet have a start date, according to a DCR spokesperson.

The state has been monitoring the southern pine beetle’s expansion to the northeast since 2015 and this is the first year that there has been significant infestations and tree mortalities.

“If left unchecked the outbreak will expand, and the beetles could spread to other pitch pine stands in the state forest or adjacent private lands,” the Massachusetts department of conservation and recreation wrote in a statement. “Acting quickly will limit the spread of [southern pine beetle] and minimize tree mortality.”

The state will continue to monitor the forest for future outbreaks, according to the statement.