Integrated Vegetation Management Study in North and South Yukon, Canada

Summary: An article in Arboriculture & Urban Forestry January 2018 finds non-targets and targets impacted by integrated vegetation management in Yukon, Canada.

White spruce trees (Picea glauca) dominate sites included in University of Saskatchewan researchers' integrated vegetation management study; young  (Picea glauca), Haines Junction, southwestern Yukon, northwestern Canada, Aug. 9, 2009: Iwona Erskine-Kellie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The article Early Vegetation Responses to Eight Right-of-Way Integrated Vegetation Management Techniques in Northern Canada analyzes grass-seeding treatment, herbicide method and mowing-control vegetation cover schedules in Arboriculture & Urban Forestry January 2018.

Kristal M. Isbister, Eric G. Lamb and Katherine J. Stewart broach right-of-way (ROW) target species balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) and willow (Salix). The University of Saskatchewan researchers in Saskatoon, Canada, consider bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis) and orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) cooling soil temperatures and controlling aspen seedlings and suckers. Mature conifers (Picea spp) and mid-successional trembling aspen and white spruce (Picea glauca) boreal forests respectively dominate the northernmost and three southerly integrated vegetation management sites.

Dawson Airport and one Otter Falls site and Mayo Road and a second Otter Falls southerly site respectively entail Eutric brunisol sands and clays on loam.

Randomized complete block sampling designs furnished Dawson Airport, Mayo Road and Otter Falls individually three aspect-, slope-, soil moisture-variable blocks, each with eight random-assigned treatment plots.

Six- by 6-meter (19.68- by 19.68-foot) plots got biological-controlled native-grass seeding, chemical-controlled imazapyr or triclopyr or mechanical-controlled mowing 10- to 20-centimeter- (3.94- to 7.87-inch-) high vegetation. All-site balsam poplar, trembling aspen and willow and Dawson-only Alaska paper birch (Betula neoalaskana) target species hurriedly harry transmission lines despite above-ground, air and below-ground disturbances. Broadcast-spray, cut-stump and point-injection herbicides, mowing and native-grass seeding optimally never interfere with non-target species evenness of plot percent cover and richness of plot total numbers.

The integrated vegetation management statistical analysis juxtaposed into percent target species control formula 2014 cover minus 2015 abundant data cover divided by 2014 cover asterisk 100.

Imazapyr and triclopyr kept best, and mowing least, target controls even though cut-stump triclopyr knew less effective results than imazapyr and triclopyr broadcast and point-injected applications.

The three researchers list one-year chemical applications as mostly outcompeting one-year biological and mechanical integrated vegetation management and imazapyr as surpassing triclopyr only as broadcast spray.

Target species damage analysis matched age (AG) with application type (AT), herbicide (H) with AT and species/life form (SP/LF) and AG with H, AT and SP/LF. Integrated vegetation management comparative analysis likewise netted application method (with point injection least damaging for non-targets), herbicide and species/life form but neglected non-target versus target age.
The four integrated vegetation management sites obtained higher mobility potential, longer persistence, lower sorption potential and more visual damage through imazapyr as opposed to triclopyr applications.

All four integrated vegetation management study sites prove that imazapyr and triclopyr chemical applications provide effective short-term control of woody species on northern and southern ROWs.

Integrated vegetation management imazapyr controls queue up chlorotic (yellowed), deformed, stunted erect shrubs and forbs, more visually damaged forbs than graminoids and slightly impacted prostrate shrubs. Species richness and non-targets respectively react to broadcast-spray and broadcast, cut-stump and point-injected imazapyr, perhaps through leaf senescence (death), mycorrhizal fungi and root exudation and grafts. Imazapyr savages non-targets more than triclopyr, except in species-specific responses by triclopyr-sensitive kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) on the southern Yukon's HJ1 and HJ2 sites in Otter Falls.

The integrated vegetation management study tallies ROW treatments and impacts on non-targets and targets that result from toxic persistence in boreal fungi, leaves, roots and soils.

Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) and white spruce (Picea glauca) dominate sites included in University of Saskatchewan researchers' integrated vegetation management study; trembling aspen and white spruce, Carcross, southwestern Yukon, northwestern Canada, June 26, 2014: Chris Hunkeler, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to:
talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet;
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Image credits:

White spruce (Picea glauca) is a dominant species in sites included in University of Saskatchewan researchers' integrated vegetation management study; young (Picea glauca), Haines Junction, southwestern Yukon, northwestern Canada, Aug. 9, 2009: Iwona Erskine-Kellie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picea_glauca_Haines_Junction.jpg

Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) and white spruce (Picea glauca) dominate sites included in University of Saskatchewan researchers' integrated vegetation management study; trembling aspen and white spruce, Carcross, southwestern Yukon, northwestern Canada, June 26, 2014: Chris Hunkeler, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrishunkeler/16715284539/

For further information:

Gilman, Ed. 2011. An Illustrated Guide to Pruning. Third Edition. Boston MA: Cengage.

Hayes, Ed. 2001. Evaluating Tree Defects. Revised, Special Edition. Rochester MN: Safe Trees.

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