Category Archives: Forestry

Lots of woods are on fire across Thomas County. The sap is rising in the hardwood trees, and it’s time to get these under control. At the same time, it has been getting warmer and drier. We’ve been about 4 weeks without rain now. The temperature in the 80s has essentially put us ahead of our growing schedule. This can get hot on some of our pine trees. I talked with UGA Extension Forester Dr. David Moorhead yesterday, and he went over some good points to consider when burning at this time:

• Fuel on the Ground – We really need to consider how dry we are, especially if you haven’t burned in a few years. If your managing timber alone and haven’t burned in a few years, you may have lots of rough build up on site. This can burn hot and scorcth trees. For these sites, it’ll be better to wait for a rain. Dr. Moorhead looked at a stand in one county where 100% of the trees were scorched. If you’re managing for quail, and burn every year, you won’t have as much litter on the ground. We’re safer in this scenario.
• Natural Firebreaks – Check your natural firebreaks, like wetlands. Even these could be dry. I was with a farmer yesterday looking at corn, and he mentioned how many fields they’ve planted this year that normally would be too wet to plant right now.
• Ips Beetles – Our beetle attacks have been worse this season because of the drought last year. These trees are under stress already. If you have a CURRENT beetle attack, Dr. Moorhead recommends to not burn. This will further stress those trees. This can affect our larger stands on plantations where thousands of acres are involved. How do you know if the beetle attack is current? If you see a group of dead tress (3-10) with pitch tubes on the bark, you need to think hard about burning. It is true that once symptoms of the attack show up, the Ips beetles are gone. But, if you are on a large track of land, the beetles maybe right around the corner. For more on Ips Engraver Beetles, look at this former blog post.
• Worker Safety – When it is this hot and dry, worker safety is very important. Be careful not to get dehydrated. Working  conditions will be hotter, and fires too may move fast.
• Burn Permits – Mostly certainly get your burn permit. Also, talk with the Georgia Forestry Commission. They can help with analyzing current conditions and determining if burning is safe now.

Golden bamboo (phyllostachys aurea) and other nonnative bamboos are perennial grass-like plants. These are runner types of bamboo, that spread with thick, underground stems called rhizomes. Clumping bamboo species grow in large clumps and are much slower in spreading. These rhizomes can spread more than 100 feet from the mother plant.

We did not get a chance to stop by a site of bamboo at Pebble Hill for our Forestry & Wildlife meeting this year. But Dr. Moorhead did cover this topic during lunch. Here is a picture of the site we would have visited, and actually is probably 90% controlled.

When controlling these runner-types of bamboo, there needs to be some efforts to break up those rhizomes. In open area patches, you can use a tractor and disk to knock down and chop up the rhizome mat. Following this, we’ll still need to use herbicides. Dr. Moorhead recommends a soil active herbicide. Velpar L or Velpar DF is a good choice. This is made in the spring of the year. Use a site prep rate which will kill any trees with roots growing in the treated area. If pine are growing in the patch, use a release rate of Velpar noted on the herbicide label based on soil texture. If you cannot risk this kind of damage to the overstory trees, cut down the bamboo (crush it, burn, etc.), then treat the new shoots with 4% glyphosate (1 pint per 3 gallon mix)..

Here is an example of the rates of velpar from the UGA Pest Control Handbook. We need to be under “Coarse” texture on the far right: 2, 3 or 4 qt per acre for a release rate.

Following our tropical storm, many landowners saw damage to trees in forests. We asked Dr. Moorhead to discuss this with us at this year’s Forestry & Wildlife program. At our first stop, we looked at damaged longleaf, and Dr. Moorhead gave an overview of assessing this damage. This is an exert from the publication “How to Evaluate and Manage Storm-Damaged Forest Areas“.

Storms ultimately cause damage by uprooting, wounding, bending, and breaking trees. Standing water following a hurricane can cause additional stress on trees and kill them. It’s good to have a plan to manage damaged timber.

• Step 1 – Sketch or get aerial photograph of area ASAP.
• Step 2 – Ground check damage to determine the need for salvage. This depends on location, amount of salvage and management objectives.

Type of Damage

Breakage

This is the most common form of damage. In pine trees, this lowers the value since breakage is random and trees are cut to specific links. Hardwood trees are seldom killed by breakage. Breakage also permits entry of stain and decay fungi.

Recommendations: For pines, if 3 live limbs or less remain, the trees should be harvest as quickly as practical. For hardwoods, trees with broken tops or branches over 3 inches in diameter should be salvaged during next scheduled harvest.

Twisted Trunks

Logs from trees that have this damage may fall apart when sawn for lumber. Those pines may have pitch flow along the truck, but appear normal.

Recommendations: Trees with evidence of twist injury should be removed, since the problem will not disappear with time.

Root Damage

Get them out! These have to be salvaged quickly since stains, decays, secondary insects (Ips, powderpost, and ambrosia beetles) will further hurt the tree. Root-sprung pines will not die quickly, but will eventually incur invasions from blue stain fungi and bark beetles.

Major Wounds

This can occur from falling tops, other uprooted trees, and branch breakage. Pine trees with major wounds to the lower bole and large roots may be attacked by bark beetles. In hardwoods, woulds that do not penetrate more than 2 inches deep (into sapwood) and have less than 144 sq inches of surface area will have only localized stain, but little decay.

Recommendations: Trees with major wounds should pretty much be removed during next schedule harvest, or included in salvage operation.

Bent Trees

This is much of what we observed at our program Tuesday. Pine trees bent to the extent that cracks and resin flow occurs could be invaded by bark beetles and disease-causing organisms. Hardwoods are not usually attacked by insects or disease.

Recommendations: Trees under 15 feet in height usually straighten. Taller, more bent hardwoods need to be removed during salvage or next scheduled harvest. Many large, green, standing trees may not be usable for veneer poles or lumber since internal ring shake, splintering and separation of the wood fibers. Many times, the only external evidence of this damage is pitch or sap flow were the injury has broken the bark. It’s easy to overlook these signs.

Below is a table of choices for storm-damaged trees.

Recommended Choices for Storm-Damaged Trees