Invasive Pros by Ridgeline Outdoor Services

09/23/2025

Healthy, resilient forests don’t just happen. They require thoughtful management, hard labor, and increasingly, the right mix of remediation and restoration from the effects of invasives, deer damage, and changing climates.

Programs like PWREN help landowners bridge the gap between good intentions and meaningful, on-the-ground results.

At Invasive Pros by Ridgeline Outdoor Services and Bee Kind Landscapes, we’ve seen firsthand how the right support on the ground turns conservation goals and forestry planning into lasting impact. Funding like this will put more landowners in a position to invest in healthier woodlands. That benefits ecosystems, communities, and future generations. We are in an era that requires creative job creation, and this is the right work at the right time. Let's keep going.

Pennsylvania forest landowners can now apply for reimbursements of up to $25,000 through a new $5 million program designed to strengthen private woodlands against pests, disease, and the impacts of climate change.

The PA Woodland Resilience Enhancement Network (PWREN) is open to landowners with between 10 and 2,500 acres of forest anywhere in Pennsylvania. Support may include:

• Forest management activities that improve forest health
• Customized woodland plans tailored to each property
• One-on-one support from DCNR service foresters, free of charge
• Connections to technical and financial resources beyond PWREN
• Local learning networks to share knowledge and best practices

Learn more: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/newsroom/shapiro-administration-launches--5-million-program-to-help-fores

09/23/2025

Talking about privet, autmun olive, and honeysuckle, the Central PA woody 3 invasives.

In our experience, winter is the most effective and cheapest time to treat these species. Low and moderate infestations are best treated with backpack spraying techniques.

We're still booking this work for winter 2025-2026 and looking for landowners with acreage. Grant funding may be available on some properties.

We are Invasive Pros by Ridgeline Outdoor Services, and we're focused on growing the future of conservation through native plants and healthy ecosystems alongside our sister brand Bee Kind Landscapes. We’re an occasional service provider (IVM, backpack spraying, restoration planting), and also an R&D company building better ways to manage the land.

09/22/2025

We are collecting PA native plant seeds for a little R&D project. Please get in touch if you have land with meadows or wetlands. Thanks!

We need some help!

We're looking for Central PA landowners that care about conservation and native plants.

We are collecting select wild seeds for propogation and need private landowners that will grant us access to collect on their property.

We are specifically looking for diverse upland meadows, and wetland/pond/stream areas.

If you own raw land with vibrant meadows, woods, or natural areas, and you’d like to see those genetics carried forward into new conservation plantings, we’d love to come check it out.

We tread lightly, collect by hand, and keep the harvest sustainable.

If you're interested, please drop a comment or get in touch with me. Thanks!

Joe Minich
Bee Kind

08/14/2025

Sure, we do the backpack spraying…

That's our bread and butter.

But behind the scenes, we’re experimenting with new ways to control invasive plants. Methods that are faster, safer, and gentler on the land.

Call it R&D, call it innovation, call it obsession.

Will the real Invasive Pros please stand up? Sorry for holding back, but that's the heart of it.

We're hitting the Japanese Knotweed trail next week. It's TOH treatment season, then we jump right into winter basal application.

We'll do about 50 acres of knotweed this year and we can squeeze some more in. It's just a start.

Soon, you’ll see what’s coming next.

07/24/2025

We have a problem in my local park. This is when problems need to be spotted and taken care of. Also, just completely unacceptable. I'm not going to blast the contractor but I'm going to find some things out.

07/12/2025

This little pond is where some of my fondest childhood memories were made.

Catching bass
PIcking blackberries
Being outside kids

How sad what it's become. A mess of Japanese Knotweed and algae. Posted signs. No wonder kids choose screens now.

Time changes everything, yes. But we can do better.

That's the core of why Invasive Pros was founded. It's not just about ecology and abstraction. This is our home. We can do better.

07/09/2025

English Ivy removal....before/after.

Ok this is a Bee Kind Landscapes job (Invasive Pros serves acreage) but this was our first time tackling this much Ivy as a team and we are happy with how it turned out.

Tough stuff, we knocked this out in about 8 weeks using a combination of manual removal and herbicides followed by the mulch application.

Seeing more and more of this taking over natural areas, and it's something we'll be adding to the Invasive Pro's repetoire soon.

07/03/2025

Happy Fourth of July from Invasive Pros!

With the soltice passed, we are approaching critical timing windows for treatment of a few of our consistent enemies: Japanese Knotweed, Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus), and Japanese Stiltgrass.

Specific treatment methodologies and timing are critical for each of these.

You can trust the pros, or DIY if you learn the time and technique. We'll be expanding our DIY resources significantly in Q3&4, so be sure to check out our website periodically.

If you're not up for DIY, make sure you hire someone that knows their way around removal best practices. Most landscapers either don't use proper technique or disregard critical timing windows, just making infestations worse.

We still have some schedule blocks available, get in touch with us today.

06/24/2025

Japanese Knotweed, in the thick of it in this heat.

Invasive treatments do not wait for cooler weather, we live by critical windows to do the job right.

We follow the cut + spray method because it is easier to treat patches once we get them knocked down vertically. Backpack spraying over your head sounds ok on paper, but if you've ever tried it, you know the deal. Mmm nothing like a nice face full of herbicide. That's why we go with this method.

Timing is critical for the whole deal but there is still time to get on this year's treatment calendar.

06/23/2025

InvasivePros is a seasonal business, we have a lot going on and sorta park it in the spring while we tend to our sister brand, Bee Kind Landscapes

But our backpack sprayers have been getting busier as we've knocked out a few low volume foliar applications in the past few weeks.

☠️JKW (Japanese Knotweed) – Treatment season is in full swing! We follow the window method for max effectiveness. Limited spots left to get in for the June/July cut prior to herbicide application — don’t wait.

🌳 Tree-of-Heaven – Coming soon! The best treatment window starts late July. Pre-book now to lock in your spot before the rush.

🌲 Woody Invasives – We’re now booking basal bark treatments for fall/winter. This is the ideal treatment window for multiflora rose, honeysuckle, privet, and more (including TSI). Basal bark is an awesome technique, really underutilized, and depending on stem count, can be a much cheaper alternative to forestry mulching.

We are the backpack spraying pros, we get to places the other dudes can't.

📅 If it’s invasive and it’s growing, we’ve got a plan for it. Hit us up now and let’s get your property on track.

814-531-5243 to schedule.

Joe and Team

06/20/2025

If you know you know

We've been taking a little time this past week to slow down, recharge, and soak in some family time. Much needed after a wild spring season where we knocked out a lot of great work.

We know we're behind on a few quotes and follow-ups — thank you for your patience. We'll be catching up this weekend and early next week. If you're waiting on something specific and want to make sure it doesn't fall through the cracks, feel free to shoot us a text message. 814-531-5243

Look for another update next week as we evaluate our direction for the remainder of the 2025 season.

Appreciate all the support as we do our best to grow Bee Kind the right way. 🌱

05/21/2025

We found this seedling in one of our garden beds. Invasive or not?

Thoughts? I have a hunch, but I'm not 100% sure. Seedling stage plants can be really tricky to ID. Thus why I potted it to confirm.