JM01%SWTEXAS@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (12/06/90)
> From: NZ%"A.S.Chamove@MASSEY.AC.NZ" "A.S. Chamove" 6-DEC-1990 > To: "Joseph M. Meyer" <JM01@SWTNYSSA.BITNET> > CC: > Subj: Re: Interest > > I am considering buying 300 acres of hilly land which is mostly gorse. > I am interested in eventually planting a mixed woodland of natives and > some exotics. When I ask locals how to get rid of the gorse, they say: > 1--grub it out with tractors, but this will severely damage the hillside. > 2--spray, but this will kill native seedlings (and I dont really want to > do this anyway. > 3--cut the gorse, but they will regrow. > > > I had thought of interplanting with fast-growing trees to shade out the > gorse, but then I would be left with dead gorse for 10 years. Eucalypts > are fast growing, but would they kill the gorse. Pines are fast growing > but they seem to inhibit the grass and lead to erosion. > > Any suggestions? > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Arnold Chamove > Massey University Psychology > Palmerston North, New Zealand Any land management scheme should be based on goals. These may be recreation, grazing, or wood production. I'll assume that you want to increase open areas of the land for recreational purposes, since grazing on hillsides is uncommon in Texas, and gorse is probably a bushy plant with little value in terms of lumber or firewood. My dictionary tells me that gorse is a type of juniper. We have a juniper that grows heavily in the Edward's Plateau region of Texas. This plant is usually quite bushy and multi-stemmed, sometimes crowding out the grasses completely. It is generally found in semi-arid rocky areas with little topsoil--in such cases, juniper growth is usually sparse and not a problem. If conditions are similar on the land you're considering, you should be quite concerned with the possibility of erosion--especially if radical changes in the vegetation are being considered. However, our juniper can also occur in thick groves--probably what you're experiencing. Regardless of the soil and weather conditions, native vegetations exist for a reason--they are more adapted to the conditions than other vegetation that might have predominated otherwise. This should be considered when decisions are made on new types of vegetation to establish. Radical procedures like grubbing are likely to increase erosion by damaging soil structure and ground cover. Sometimes such procedures worsen the infestation of various undesirable plants by spreading their seeds throughout the soil. I would also advise against the use of widespread spraying, due to the hazards of herbicides--to you and the environment. Also, as you mention, sprays will probably damage the vegetation you want to preserve. Widespread cutting would, as you say, result in much regrowth. The regrowth would also be multi-stemmed, making the problem of excessive brush worse than before. However, you might consider a slow process of thinning to be conducted over a period of several years. As natural stands of vegetation mature, larger plants crowd-out the smaller ones. This results in fewer and larger plants per acre, with larger spaces between the individual plants. You can increase the speed of this process by pruning the multi-stemmed plants to a single straight stem, and allowing them to mature at a faster rate. The single stem preserved on each plant will reduced the amount of regrowth from cut areas, by shading the cut areas and using the plant's energy resources. Resprouting can also be reduced by keeping enough surrounding plants, or promoting enough grass growth, to provide shading on cut areas. Alternatively, the resprouting can be reduced by the use of chemicals such as Napthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) which are commercially available for the prevention of resprouting on pruned fruit trees and ornamental plants. Anyway, I would suggest a long-term and gradual process of pruning and thinning. Once the gorse reaches a mature size, root and canopy competition should reduce the problem of overcrowding. Get some books on forest silviculture, and read about pruning and thinning. Root competition may be a particular advantage for land management in arid regions. ________________________________________________________________DDDDDDDDr Joseph M. Meyer Office of Institutional Research and Planning Southwest Texas State University San Marcos, Texas 78666 BITNET%"JM01@SWTEXAS" "Don't be humble; you're not that great." -- Golda Meir :@_______________________________________________________________________
A.S.Chamove@massey.ac.nz (A.S. Chamove) (12/07/90)
Thanks for the info on Napthalene Acetic Acid. Gorse is a very spiny plant introduced from the UK to NZ. When the natural cover of slow-growing evergreens was cleared for sheep farming here, the gorse (introduced for hedges) were able to compete because they are not palatable to sheep while the natives are. The gorse form a bush about 3 meters high and across with no commercial value and a bitch to get rid of. I dont know what keeps them in check in the UK, but they do take over motorway (freeway) verges there and have to be cut and burned. MY goal is to produce a hillside of mixed grass and open trees where one could walk or ride or even graze a few of the local pigs (grass eating variety: kuni kuni). It would be an amenity area; now it is impenatrable because the of the heavy gorse infestation. The area is not dry and has green grass all year. Rain can be intense and so I want to maintain at least grass cover as much as possible. It is very windy here in NZ, very windy for short periods of time (one or two days). From the advice given, I plan to cut the gorse by hand and roll it down the slopes into rows above the stream at the base of the gullies. HEre it can be crushed and left to degrade. The regeneration could be dealt with by spot applications of a herbicide or inhibitor. I will then plant rapidly-growing trees between the dead gorse stumps. Hopefully the trees will shade out any germinating gorse, and the trees can be thinned at 5 or 10 years to give a more open, park-like setting. thanks for your contributions -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arnold Chamove Massey University Psychology Palmerston North, New Zealand
A.S.Chamove@massey.ac.nz (A.S. Chamove) (12/10/90)
Contacted the Forestry Commission in the UK about my gorse. They said that I should spray with TRICLOPYR which is not harmeful to other plant life or to wildlife. The implication is that the herbicide is specific to gorse or to juniper. Surely this is incorrect? -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arnold Chamove Massey University Psychology Palmerston North, New Zealand