Minimising the environmental impact of weed management in New Zealand's planted forests - Weed control in planted forests underpins highly productive, uniform forests and is one of the most important silvicultural tools when establishing trees in New Zealand. Weed control is normally provided by herbicides.
Environmental certification schemes place an onus on the planted forest industry to reduce or stop using some pesticides in plantation forests. Between 2007 and 2015, the herbicides terbuthylazine and hexazinone were classified as highly hazardous for use in plantation forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
The New Zealand planted forest industry can minimise effects on the environment and meet environmental certification criteria by optimising herbicide application methods and using alternative, more benign, herbicides.
Weed management research at Scion over the last six years has largely focussed on finding alternative, less hazardous herbicides, as well as also investigating any negative environmental impacts associate with herbicide use.
Methods to reduce the impacts of forest management on natural resources have been investigated, including targeted application of herbicides, dose optimisation and non-chemical weed control methods.
