DowAgro Herbicide Workshop for Landowners

Private landowners were invited to the Webb Wildlife Center in Jasper County on August 6 to participate in a forestry herbicide workshop sponsored by Dow Agro Sciences and Red River Specialties. Sweetgum trees and saplings are enemy number one in Jasper County, making it a likely place for this type of workshop, but they are prevalent throughout the Lowcountry and they greatly complicate a land manager's idea for an open landscape that benefits wildlife. Three methods of sweetgum control seem to work when used together: 1)mechanical operations, 2)Chemical applications and 3)use of prescribed fire. Landowners attending the workshop toured areas that are currently under all three treatments and can bear witness to the aesthetics of a 'park-like' setting - whereas other areas not under any control were dense with hardwood stems that blocked out sunlight and offered no wildlife benefits. Some of the herbicides discussed included Garlon-XRT and Arsenal, and the important factor of timing was stressed for the application to achieve maximum effect. It is often the case that the herbicide treatment prescription given by DowAgro depends on what the individual landowner wants for their property in the next two to five years, and this workshop helped to illustrate the options available to them.

Photos By Jeff Dennis: Herbicide application equipment includes everything from a backpack sprayer to an ATV-mounted sprayer to a tractor boom sprayer, Webb Center Chief Jay Cantrell talks while DNR's Ted Rainwater and Plantation manager Comer Morrison listen about herbicide applications, Jasper County plantation managers Julian Clark and Billy Exley in front of some of the Webb Center's managed uplands, landowners learn about how to keep wildlife beneficial grasses underneath pine stands instead of a sea of sweetgums