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Published on 06/15/17

UGA workshop to focus on forest herbicide applications

By Clint Thompson

Foresters, forest herbicide applicators, land managers and landowners interested in maintaining effective forest herbicide programs are encouraged to attend the University of Georgia Daniel B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources’ Forest Herbicide Workshop. The workshop will be held on Tuesday, July 18, and Wednesday, July 19, at the Tift County UGA Cooperative Extension office.

Forestry faculty — David Dickens and Dave Moorhead from the Warnell School; Gary Burtle from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and Andy Ezell, representing Mississippi State University’s Department of Forestry — will discuss topics related to forest herbicide applications.

"This is a prescription course at which the attendees will learn how to make prescriptions for applications of herbicides. These treatments are all based on the type of plants you’ve got to control, the type of forest stands you’re trying to manage and soil factors,” Moorhead said.

Topics covered during the two-day conference include forest herbicide safety, herbicides for aquatic vegetation control, integration of herbicide use in site preparation, and control of invasive, exotic plants in forest stands.

Dickens, a Warnell School professor of forest productivity, believes herbicide applications are an essential tool for forest management.

“Properly applied forest herbicides at the right time and the right dosage can have long-term crop tree growth benefits, depending on the tree species, compared to mechanical treatments like disking or harrowing, chopping, or mowing alone,” he said.

Herbicide application can improve pine growth by 1 ton per acre per year or more for 10 to 20 years, according to Dickens. Herbicide and application costs are relatively low, between $30 and $120 per acre in most cases.

The registration fee for the course is $210 and includes lunch, refreshments and instructional materials. A $25 discount will be applied to registrations received by Wednesday, July 5.

Those interested in attending the workshop can also register online at www.conted.warnell.uga.edu. Full attendance is mandatory to receive continuing education credits.

According to the Georgia Forestry Commission, $19.2 billion in total revenue was generated by the forest industry in 2015.

Clint Thompson is an agriculture writer based in Tifton, Georgia.

Authors:
Clint Thompson
Experts/Sources:
David J. Moorhead
Ernest David Dickens
A row of pines at the Westbrook Research Farm on the UGA campus in Griffin, Georgia.
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