Tree Planting Program

The establishment of seedlings in an area in which natural regeneration is inadequate. The seedlings are obtained from a Provincial or private nursery and are planted by hand in the spring or fall, depending upon availability of stock and preparation of proposed areas.

Mechanical Site Preparation

The preparation of an area for artificial planting by use of heavy equipment intended to increase the number of planting sites.

Weeding

Weeding is often done after stand establishment in planted stands to control unwanted vegetation in the form of woody plants or competing tree species when stands are between 2 and 10 years old. There are two general types of weeding based on the method used.

Chemical Weeding

Chemical Weeding is often recommended for softwood plantations where excessive competition from hardwoods and other vegetation will limit or kill the planted trees.

This is used to control unwanted woody vegetation and hardwood tree species through the application of a chemical pesticide similar to that used by farmers and homeowners on lawns and gardens. It works by acting on chlorophyll in hardwood leaves. It cannot affect humans, animals, or insects like older chemical pesticides and it becomes inert after approximately two weeks on the soil or plant surface. It also does not kill all of the hardwoods in a plantation and allows a semi-mixed wood stand to develop faster than if it were left to develop naturally. This can be applied both from the ground or air depending on availability and site conditions.

Mechanical Weeding

This can be used in hardwood plantations and where chemical pesticide use is restricted or when the landowner does not wish to use chemicals. This has to be used when the crop trees are at a height where they can compete with any weed species that grow after the mechanical weeding takes place, otherwise the treatment will have to be repeated.