Forest Herbicides

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The common herbicide treatments described on this website work across a wide range of site conditions, but many other options may be tailored to particular sites.  In developing site-specific treatments many factors are considered, including the management objective, type and size of vegetation, herbicide tolerance of the desired vegetation, environmental safety, and  the costs of both herbicides and application method.  These factors are discussed in detail in our EDIS publication Considerations for developing effective herbicide prescriptions for forest vegetation management.  The treatments presented here are intended to provide general guidelines, but landowners are encouraged to seek the guidance of experienced commercial forest herbicide applicators and consulting foresters.

Herbicides, fire and machinery are cost-effective tools for managing forest vegetation for many objectives:

• Increase timber value
• Enhance wildlife habitat
• Restore native ecosystems
• Improve aesthetics
• Reduce wildfire hazard
• Manage invasive plants

• Preparing for Planting (Site Preparation)
  Herbicides may be used alone or in combination with fire or machinery to prepare the site for planting.
• Managing Weeds in New Plantings (Herbaceous Weed Control)
  Herbaceous weeds may be controlled with selective herbicides in pine and hardwood plantations.
• Brush Control in Pine Stands (Pine Release)
  Woody shrubs and tree-forming hardwoods are controlled with selective herbicides in young pine stands where optimizing timber values is an important objective. 
• Applications Methods
  Forestry herbicides may be applied using sophisticated aerial application, ground sprayer machinery, or something as simple as a squirt-bottle.

Inclusion of a herbicide trade name on this website does not constitute an endorsement of a product or a company, as other products manufactured by different companies might be equally suited for the intended herbicide use. For each active ingredient we try to provide examples of brand-name and generic products.  Numerous herbicides are available that contain the same active ingredient or ingredients.  Chem Search by CDMS allows searching herbicides by the active ingredient (after a free registration).  However, the user should be aware that there might be considerable differences among herbicide formulations, in terms of their properties and registration, even among products with the same concentration of the same active ingredient(s). The label directions on the specific product container being used are the law.