Vegetation Management
- Vegetation Management for Mulitiple Objectives
- Mechanical Treatments, Grazing & Fire
- Using Herbicides
- Additional Topics
Vegetation Management for Mulitiple Objectives
Timber
Facilitate timber stand establishment by reducing competition.
- Site Preparation - before planting
- Herbaceous weed control - first growing season
- Seedling Release - Age 1+, control woody stems
- Mid-rotation Brush Control - usually combined with thinning or fertilization
Wildlife
Alter vegetation structure to meet specific habitat needs:
- Know which species you are managing for
- What are their habitat requirements?
- Herbicides can release desirable forages such as American beautyberry, ragweed, beggar’s lice, honeysuckle, blackberry, and muscadine.
- Using fire, mechanical treatments and/or herbicides, you can create a mosaic of vegetation cover to optimize habitat diversity.
Ecosystem / Groundcover Restoration
Manage vegetative composition to restore native plants.
- Herbicides can be used to select for desirable plants in seed bank - wiregrass in seedbed can be released by removing oaks (photo by Leslie Hawkins).
- Herbicides are most effective in controlling invasive exotic plants.
For more information, see our Ecosystem Management page or read the Extension Publication: Restoring Longleaf Pine Sandhill Communities with an Herbicide.
Mechanical Treatments, Grazing & Fire
Although mechanical treatments are generally not a long-lasting as chemical treatments, they may be cost-effective in some cases.
Cultivation or Disking
This technique may be used to control competing vegetation on areas previously used for agricultural crops or where rocky soils, large stems, or stumps do not impede tillage. To use cultivation, rows and spacings of planted trees should be wide enough to accomodate tillage equipment.
Disks and harrows are most commonly used for forest cultivation. Soils are tilled between rows of trees, but may also be tilled between pines where spacings are wide and regular. Tilling between rows will not control vegetation within the row itself.
For wildllife objectives, periodic disking of established ground covers will enhance species and mast diversity. To avoid the disturbance of ground nesting species such as turkey and quail, and to promote the growth of important wildlife foods such as partridge pea, ragweed, and beggarweed, mowing and disking should be conducted during the winter months (November - February).
Mowing
Tractor-mounted mowers, brush cutters, or hand tools may be used to remove competing vegetation in young pine stands. Tractor-mounted mowers or "bushhogs" are commonly used where pines have been planted in open areas such as agricultural land.
Although stands must be mowed several times during a growing season, pine survival can be enhanced significantly. Mowing changes vegetation species composition to favor grasses and sedges which survive repeated mowings better than broadleaf species. This can greatly improve forage for wildlife or livestock. The remaining ground cover also decreases the potential for erosion.
Grazing
Integrating timber and livestock production (silvopasture) diversifies product output and may increase your revenues. When incorporating grazing, we are concerned with soil compaction and damage to pines from browsing and trampling in young stands. However, it has been suggested that livestock can be used to promote stand establishment as long as the number and distribution of animals and timing is carefully controlled.
For grazing to work with timber management, palatable forage must be available to minimize grazing on pines. Intensive site preparation improves native forage development. Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) may be seeded after site preparation to improve the quality and availability of forage.
Also, keep these points in mind:
- Canopy density will have a significant effect on forage yields. Therefore, tree spacing should be wide. Research has shown that a tree spacing of 4 x 8 x 40 feet (4 feet between trees in rows, 8 feet between rows, and 40 feet between pairs of rows) is an optimal spacing for both wood and forage yield.
- Grazing during the late winter and in the early spring after planting should be avoided because palatable forage will be in short supply during these times.
- Placement of mineral blocks and feed stations can help control livestock distribution.
University of Florida Extension Publications
Prescribed Fire
Prescribed fire has many uses in southern pine management. The advantages of using fire to manage vegetation is low cost and versatility. Summer burns can control hardwood brush and favor the growth of herbaceous vegetation, which provides forage for wildlife. Periodic summer or winter burns may encourage hardwood sprouting, which provides succulent browse for deer.
See our Fire page for more information about prescribed burns.
Using Herbicides
Why Use Herbicides?
Herbicides Can |
Herbicides Cannot |
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Treatments in some of these publications, Web sites and tables below are not guaranteed to work everywhere. Always apply herbicides according to the label.
Additional Resources
Extension Publications
- Primer on Chemical Vegetation Management in Florida Pine Plantations
- More UF-IFAS Publications about vegetation management