Treesearch

Thousands of kilometers of dozer lines are plowed each year to suppress fires on national forest lands. The recolonization and recovery process of these disturbed landscapes is not well studied and may differ across regions. In spring 2021, a dozer line was constructed through a botanically diverse, high-quality shale woodland-glade plant community on the Ouachita National Forest, AR, to suppress a 10-ha spot-over from a prescribed burn. We installed two 100-m transects in the dozer line and identified all plant species in quadrats along each transect. We compared these transects to...

The spatial structure of vegetation influences the development of forest stands. Individual crop trees, which have either similar or dissimilar traits to their neighbors, are likely to be spatially dependent. In intensively managed plantations, the presence of competing vegetation has been shown to limit crop tree productivity, suggesting that the occurrence of undesired vegetation is also spatially dependent because it is competing for the same site resources. Silvicultural treatments applied throughout rotation systematically alter the spatial structure of forests to favor crop tree...

Climate change is happening today and will continue in the future, producing many unexpected effects on our forests. In recent years, climate change has become the most critical driver for forest management, altering how we practice silviculture and forestry. Climate-Smart Forestry (CSF) is an emerging approach to sustainable forest management, with specific strategies and proactive practices aimed at promoting climate change adaptation to improve forest resilience for the benefits of neutralizing carbon emissions, sustaining productivity and provision of ecosystem services, and harmonizing...

Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) plantations are grown on more than 44 million acres worldwide, yet some species are considered invasive. A new herbicide, aminocyclopyrachlor (AMCP) was evaluated to determine rate response and effect of stem diameter for control of planted eucalyptus trees by cut stem treatment compared to standard applications of imazapyr or triclopyr herbicides. Using an AMCP product containing 1.0-pound acid equivalent (ae) per gallon, the lowest rate tested, 12.5 percent in water, resulted in 100 percent eucalyptus crown reduction and greater control than the standard...

Site preparation continues to be a major focus of vegetation management programs in pine (Pinus spp.) plantation management in the South. Evaluation of new products applied alone or in mixture must be completed to test cost efficacy. In this study, 10 treatments (including an untreated control) were applied to a recent cutover area in northern Mississippi. All treatments were replicated three times in an October 2021 application. Plots were evaluated at 4 months after treatment (MAT), 8 MAT, and 1 year after treatment. Results indicate that most tested mixtures provided excellent control...

A total of 15 treatments were applied to wilding loblolly pines (Pinus taeda) on two utility right-of-way sites. One site was sprayed in July and the second site was sprayed in September. Five different glufosinate products were included in the treatments. Total spray volume of 15 gallons per acre and three replications of all treatments were utilized at both sites. Brownout was evaluated at 14, 28, and 56 days after treatment. Pine control was evaluated at 1 year after treatment. Pine control ranged from 98.4 to 100.0 percent among the treatments. There was no significant difference among...

Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense, hereafter: privet) is an invasive shrub common throughout the Eastern and Southeastern United States. The foremost concern of privet is its highly competitive nature; it displaces native plants, their associated pollinators, and wildlife communities. Extended leaf phenology (ELP) is an adaptation which allows understory plants in deciduous forests to take advantage of higher sunlight levels during the dormant season when canopy foliage is absent and has been associated with many invasive plant species. To measure the ELP potential of privet, we created...

A total of 18 treatments were applied to the understory vegetation in a 31-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantation. The study site was on the Mississippi State University John Starr Forest in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. Plots were evaluated at 14, 28, 56, 90, and 120 days after treatment with final evaluation at 1 year after treatment. Control of red oak species (Section Quercus) and red maple (Acer rubrum) was generally less than desirable unless imazapyr was in the treatment. Glufosinate performed better on white oak species (Section Lobatae), persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)...

Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) is an aggressive, nonnative shrub of the Southeastern United States. Its evergreen leaves allow for herbicide treatment in the dormant season when the impact to native species can be minimized. The purpose of this study was to determine which combination of chemical herbicide (glyphosate, metsulfuron, or a mixture of both) and application method (backpack sprayer or mistblower) applied during the dormant season would result in the greatest control of Chinese privet with minimal nontarget impacts. Study results suggest that herbicide, regardless of the...

Forest ecosystems store large amounts of carbon and can be important sources, or sinks, of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is contributing to global warming. Understanding the carbon storage potential of different forests and their response to management and disturbance events are fundamental to developing policies and scenarios to partially offset greenhouse gas emissions. Projections of live tree carbon accumulation are handled differently in different models, with inconsistent results. We developed growth-and-yield style models to predict stand-level live tree carbon density as a...