The size of the tree farm dictates how growers deal with weeds, deer, fungus

By STEVE BROWN

Capital Press

McCLEARY, Wash. -- Tree farms large and small deal with similar weed issues, and the tools they use are similar in substance if not in scale.

Herbicides applied after harvest knock down broadleaf plants that would otherwise compete with new plantings, silviculture forester Mike Warjone said. At his Port Blakely Tree Farms chemical site preparation has been the practice for the past 25 years.

Glyphosate is the chemical of choice, he said, and with an operation that plants about 2 million trees a year on its Washington and Oregon sites, spraying by helicopter is the best approach.

Deer are another pest, often munching the tender shoots of seedlings. "There's no silver bullet for deer," he said. "The best tactic is keeping the vegetative competition down."

Small-forestland owners may also use glyphosate, but a backpack sprayer is more practical.

"Some of us do spray, using herbicides with low toxicity levels. It helps control the weeds to give the seedlings a chance to grow above the brush," Rick Dunning, executive director of the Washington Farm Forestry Association, said. "Once the trees are up about 6 feet, in a couple of years, they don't need any more spraying."

A small percentage of noncommercial operations spray, Dunning said, "but it might be growing. We're seeing better seedling survival and growth, which is the key to a healthy forest and a better tree in the long run."

Disease issues such as soil fungus are dealt with differently, Warjone said.

"We do disease mitigation by planting different species, like red alder and cedar," he said. "They make less money than Douglas fir, but it keeps the land productive."

Port Blakely has also started spraying urea in areas to be harvested 10 years down the road.

"It stimulates the microbiology of the soil," he said. "We might do that more."

Though timber operations "have a bad rep," Warjone said, "We have 1,700 neighbors bordering our tree farms. They are our best advocates. At one time or another, we've met them all."

Before any spray operation, those neighbors are told so they can shut their windows for a few hours, he said.

Recent lawsuits and ballot initiatives in Oregon seek to ban or limit spraying, giving authority to the counties instead of the state, he said.

"That would put a dent in the ability to operate, and it would set a bad precedent," he said. "We do all we can to change public perception about what we do and why we do it."