Herbicides-protecting long-term sustainability and water quality in forest ecosystems.

Neary, Daniel G. and Michael, Jerry L. (1996) Herbicides-protecting long-term sustainability and water quality in forest ecosystems. New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science, 26. pp. 241-264. ISSN 1179-5395

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Abstract

World-wide, sediment is the major water quality problem. The use of herbicides for controlling competing vegetation during stand establishment can be beneficial to forest ecosystem sustainability and water quality by minimizing off-site soil loss, reducing onsite soil and org. matter displacement, and preventing deterioration of soil phys. properties. Sediment losses from sites where competing vegetation is controlled by mech. methods can be 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than natural losses from undisturbed watersheds. On a watershed basis, vegetation management techniques in general increase annual erosion by <7%. Herbicides do not increase natural erosion rates. Org. matter and nutrients that are crit. to long-term site productivity can be removed off-site by mech. vegetation-management techniques and fire, or redistributed on-site in a manner that reduces availability to the next stand. For several decades, research has been conducted on the fate of forestry-use herbicides in various watersheds throughout the southern and western US, Canada, and Australia. This research has evaluated chems. such as 2,4-D, glyphosate, hexazinone, imazapyr, metsulfuron Me, picloram, sulfometuron Me, tebuthiuron, and triclopyr. Losses in streamflow, and leaching to groundwater have been evaluated. Field study data indicate that residue concns. tend to be low, except where direct applications are made to ephemeral channels or streams, and do not persist for extended periods of time. Regional environmental impact statements in the US demonstrate that forestry herbicide presence in surface and groundwater is not a significant risk to water quality or human health. They also indicate that herbicides can greatly reduce water quality deterioration that is produced by erosion and sedimentation. [on SciFinder(R)]

Item Type:	Article
Publisher’s Statement:	Specific CC license required, no statement seen
Keywords:	herbicides, sediment, water quality, environment, site productivity, forestry, vegetation control
Subjects:	S Agriculture > SD Forestry
Department/Unit:	College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Science > School of Forestry
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2017 20:03
URI:	http://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/2048

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