Vegetation Management

Vegetation management is required to ensure successful establishment and growth of many reforested areas in B.C. Over the 14 year period from 1981 to 1994 a total of 520,800 hectares of crown forest land received brushing treatments at a cost of approximately $213 million. During 1994/95 approximately 70,000 hectares of crown forest land received brushing treatments to ensure establishment and growth of young seedlings. This involved the use of herbicides (35% of the area), manual cutting ( 52%), and sheep grazing (13%). In addition, site preparation treatments are applied to approximately 140,000 hectares annually to reduce slash, prepare sites for planting, encourage natural regeneration, and control vegetation. It is estimated that 80,000 ha of crown forest land need to be brushed annually in B.C.

The vegetation management research program provides information to support development of cost-effective and environmentally sound vegetation management prescriptions. Research projects are designed to provide information for the development, evaluation and comparison of vegetation management treatments.

Databases for treatment planning and an experimental design protocol for treatment response evaluations have been developed. Studies of the impacts of differing amounts of competition and various levels of competition control on performance of young conifers provide information that is useful for identifying competition problems. Information on the impacts of several vegetation management options on establishment and growth of young stands has been collected to provide a basis for evaluating the long-term impacts of these treatments.

A number of research projects were initiated over the years to evaluate treatment options for improving the survival and performance of young forest plantations. Remeasurement of older, previously established vegetation management trials is also ongoing to provide longer term crop tree and vegetation response information.

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Projects

• EP1135: Comparison of Vegetation Management Treatment Options
• EP1135.01: Enhancing Early Stand Growth through the use of Vegetation Management - 15 Year Post-treatment Results
• Effectiveness of Repeated Manual Cutting for Release of Engelmann Spruce from Mixed-Shrub Communities in the Revelstoke District
• A Comparison of Manual, Biological and Herbicide Treatments for Controlling Bigleaf Maple
• A Comparison of Mulch Mat and Herbicide Treatments for Reducing Grass Competition in the IDFfww
• Vegetation Management Options for Establishment of Hybrid Poplar Plantations
• An Evaluation of Chondrostereum purpureum for the control of aspen and Sitka alder
• Evaluation of forest vegetation community dynamics, biodiversity and wildlife forage values 8 years after herbicide and manual brushing treatments on the Bush River Brushing Trial site
• EP1192: EXperimental Design Protocol for Long-term Operational Response Evaluations: EXPLORE
• EP1195: Mackay River Herbicide Trial
• EP1195: Redfish Creek Motor Manual Brushing Trial
• EP1195: Bush River Brushing Trial
• EP1195: Stewart Lake Herbicide Trial
• EP1195: Sunset Prairie Mechanical Site Prep. Trial
• EP1199: Nelson Forest Region Multifactor Manual Brushing Study

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Vegetation Management Publications

• B.C. Ministry of Forests publications can be downloaded from the following website:
  http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/scripts/hfd/pubs/hfdcatalog/index.asp

2001

• Vegetation Management Using Polyethylene Mulch Mats and Glyphosate Herbicide in a Coastal British Columbia Hybrid Poplar Plantation: 4-yr Growth Response.
• Ten-year Responses of White Spruce and Associated Vegetation after Glyphosate Treatment at Tsilcoh River.

2000

• Effectiveness of Repeated Manual Cutting and Glyphosate for Release of Engelmann Spruce from Mixed-Shrub Herb Vegetation
• Pinchi Lake Operational Herbicide Monitoring: 10-year conifer and vegetation responses in the SBSdw3.
• Ten-year conifer and vegetation responses to glyphosate treatment in the SBSdw3.
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of Chondrostereum purpureum for the control of mechanically brushed trembling aspen suckers in a 2-year-old conifer plantation: Third-year results.

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1999

• Conifer Response to Brushing Treatments: A Summary of British Columbia Data.
• Twelve-year conifer and vegetation responses to discing and glyphosate treatments on a BWBSmw backlog site.

1998

• A comparison of four treatments for weeding Engelmann spruce plantations in the interior cedar hemlock zone of British Columbia: ten years after treatment.
• Vegetation recovery and plant diversity dynamics in grassland communities following herbicide treatment.
• Conifer response to brushing treatments, a review of available information.
• A comparison of mulch mat and herbicide treatments for reducing grass competition in the IDFww.
  Ten-year results from a Motor-Manual Brushing Trial for Conifer Release in the ICHdw.
• A comparison of manual brushing treatments in the ICHdw at Redfish Creek: 10-year results from blocks 10-13.
• Experimental Design Protocol for long-term operational response evaluations - EXPLORE.

1997

• First-season efficacy results for Chondrostereum purpureum applications on Sitka alder in B.C.
• Expert Committee on Weeds - Proceedings of the 1996 National Meeting.
• Conifer and vegetation response in the BWBSmw 12 years after mechanical and herbicide site preparation.
• Mackay River herbicide trial: conifer response 9 years post-treatment.
• Effectiveness of repeated manual cutting for release of Engelmann spruce from mixed-shrub communities in the Revelstoke District.
• EXPLORE - Experimental design protocol for long-term operational response evaluation.
• Understory vegetation development under various silvicultural systems in the Interior Cedar Hemlock (ICH) subzone.

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1996

• Conifer tolerance to Vision herbicide application in the year of planting.
• Effectiveness of plastic mulch and herbicide treatments for establishing Douglas-fir on a grassy site.
  Integrated forest vegetation management: Options and applications.
• Physiological component of the Nelson Forest Region multifactor manual brushing trial - Bigger Creek site.
• Stewart Lake herbicide trial - Conifer response 12 years post treatment.
• A comparison of mulch mats and herbicide treatments for reducing grass competition in the IDFww.
  Effectiveness of repeated cutting and Vision treatments for controlling mixed shrub vegetation - crop response.
• Effectiveness of repeated cutting and Vision treatments for controlling mixed shrub vegetation.
• Effectiveness of tree mats, hexazinone, and glyphosate for establishing Douglas-fir on a grassy site.
• An evaluation of plastic mulch mats for vegetation management in a hybrid poplar plantation.
• Testing forest vegetation management options.
• Mackay River herbicide trial - Conifer response 9 years post treatment.
• Evaluation of forest vegetation community dynamics, on the Bush River Brushing trial site.
• Effectiveness of forest vegetation control methods in British Columbia.

1995

• Physiological Component of the Nelson Forest Region Multifactor Manual Brushing Study - Destructive sampling to determine the effects of manual brushing on the physiology and growth response of conifer seedlings.
• Control of bigleaf maple using cut stump and basal treatments.
• Effectiveness of tree mats, hexazinone, and glyphosate for establishing Douglas-fir on a grassy site.
• Effectiveness of repeated cutting and Vision treatments for controlling mixed shrub vegetation - crop response.
• Effectiveness of plastic mulch and herbicide treatments for establishing Douglas-fir on a grassy site.
  Conifer response to brushing and development of a provincial system for vegetation management monitoring in B.C.

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1994

• Conifer tolerance to Vision herbicide application in the year of planting.
• Effectiveness of repeated cutting and Vision treatments for controlling mixed shrub vegetation.
• Control of bigleaf maple using cut stump and basal treatments.
• Conifer tolerance to Vision herbicide application in the year of planting.
• Evaluation of forest vegetation community dynamics, biodiversity and wildlife forage values 8 years after herbicide and manual brushing treatments on the Bush River Brushing Trial site.
• Effectiveness of plastic mulch and herbicide treatments for establishing Douglas-fir on a grassy site.
  Effectiveness of tree mats, hexazinone, and glyphosate for establishing Douglas-fir on a grassy site.
• Evaluation of forest vegetation community dynamics, biodiversity and wildlife forage values 8 years after herbicide and manual brushing treatments on the Bush River Brushing Trial site.
• Comparison of 4 treatment options for weeding shrub dominated spruce plantations.
• Multifactor manual brushing study - Bigger Creek site, Nelson Forest Region.

1993

• Conifer response to brushing treatments, a review of available information.
• Competition indices and decision making.

1992

• Control of weeds in forest silviculture.
• Effectiveness of repeated cutting treatments in a mixed-shrub/herb community - Sullivan Site 2.
• Effectiveness of repeated cutting treatments in a fireweed community.
• Effectiveness of repeated cutting treatments in a mixed-shrub/herb community - Sullivan Site 1.
• A comparison of mulch mats and herbicide treatments for reducing grass competition in the IDFww.
• Comparison of manual, biological and herbicide treatments for controlling bigleaf maple.
• Manual brushing for forest vegetation management in British Columbia: A Review of Current Knowledge and Information Needs.

1991

• Control of weeds in forest silviculture.

1988

• Dose-response models for stand thinning with the "Ezject" herbicide injection system.

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Last Modified: 2008 APR 10.  Ministry contact: Frank van Thienen
Webmaster: For.Prodres@gov.bc.ca