DEPARTMENT OF FOREST SCIENCE
Highlights
1999-2000
This report presents the Vegetation Management
Research Cooperative’s activities in forest vegetation management
research. Highlights for the 1999-00
year include:
· The Herb II study (Spatial Influences on Early Douglas-fir Growth: Interaction of Vegetation Control, Optimum Seedling Quality, and Fertilization) was retired. A manuscript detailing results has been submitted to the Canadian Journal of Forestry Research.
· The “2 in 2” study (Optimizing Seedling Growth Utilizing Seedling Target Characteristics, Fertilization, and Vegetation Management) completed its third year on two sites and its second year on three others. Two additional installations of this study were initiated.
· A journal article on results of the Nu-Film-IR study has been accepted by Tree Planters Notes and should be published in the next issue.
· The third Volume of the Autecology of Problematic Plants was completed and distributed to Cooperators.
· A VMRC Progress Report summarizing results from the 2 meters in 2 years studies was produced.
· A VMRC Progress Report Summarizing second year results from the conifer phytotoxicity study (Phytotoxicity of Common Site Preparation and Release Herbicides on Selected Northwest Conifer Species) was produced.
· The first of four Critical Threshold Period study sites was installed.
· In the last year we have welcomed three additional new cooperators; Roseburg Forest Products, Longview Fibre and Prosource One.
· A new graduate student has been hired, Owen Burney, and he initiated a project evaluating the factors influencing the high variability observed in growth at all the “2 in 2” study sites.
A Word From our Director
To all my friends in the VMRC,
It took 14 years for me to take a sabbatical, which was 7 years later than I should have. Professorial faculty get to take sabbaticals every 7 years for the purpose of renewal. Some corporations even permit sabbaticals so executives and researchers can get a new perspective. It is an incredible luxury and I have taken full advantage of every opportunity it has provided so far.
I am here in Taiwan to write a book with the generous support of the National Science Council of Taiwan and the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. Other Americans should be so lucky! They have blessed me with a great honor, actually. The book will likely be called The Autecology, Ethnobotany, and Propagation of Indigenous and Alien Species in Taiwan. I have never had so much fun researching something in my entire career. In fact, it is hard to describe how so many aspects of this writing exercise have contributed to my professional growth and expanded my horizons.
The book is centered around 60 species. Each is broken down into many different categories from botanical description to commercial uses. Early on I wanted my sons to be able to make some use of the book so I have gone to great lengths to explain the origins of many of the scientific nomenclature. For instance, Heriteria littoralis is a coastal mangrove species. Littoralis comes from the Greek word meaning "shore". The book is targeted at a mixed audience from the curious tourist to the serious graduate student in need of rich detail. I have been combing the literature right down to the compounds isolated from the seeds and bark of some plants.
The plants themselves are fascinating. Trees in this part of the world were the focus of commerce long before people even knew much about Douglas-fir. Cinnimomum camphora is mentioned in the Bible. Many Cinnimomums were sources of spices or medicines and are being studied for the secrets they may still hold. I was out on a visit to a park and was invited to eat the leaf of one species. The rich cinnamon flavor was nothing like you taste in gum. Much of the cinnamon spice we get in the US is artificial any way. You should taste the real thing!
When I get tired of writing and reading up in my library office among the dusty books and the "pooping" geckos patrolling the ceiling(this is the tropics!), I head for the uplifted coral reef forest that is the Heng-Chun Tropical Botanical Garden here at the southern tip of Taiwan. Occasionally, I have gotten up at 4 AM to go out with Luna, who is young researcher, studying the Formosan Macaque monkey. The monkeys are fascinating to watch in the wild. They leave their resting place in the early hours at dawn to find leaves and fruit to feed upon. Around 11 am or so they stop to rest and groom in a Ficus tree. Once one of them goes to the bath room, the rest follow suit and the trees "rain". Once you have seen a monkey in the wild and up close, you will never ever want to see one in a zoo.
As time goes on I am getting all over Taiwan from the high mountains to the lowlands. The forests here are incredibly beautiful. Cutting is no longer legal in Taiwan and they import some 99% of their wood. When Formosa was part of Japan from 1895 to 1945 the forests were cut down and sent back to Japan for construction. One hundred years ago the island was home to "savages" (many were headhunters!) that lived among old growth trees to rival anything to be found in Oregon or California. They had two meter diameter hardwoods and larger at one time - most were cut down. Unlike Douglas-fir they do not grow back with any speed at all.
Culturally, Taiwan is very rich. The culture here was all but snuffed out by the Japanese who banned the formal speaking of Taiwanese or even Chinese among the dozen aboriginal tribes and mainlanders who settled the island long ago. Even the KMT party that took dictatorial control over the island after WWII banned Taiwanese on the radio and later TV. I have had the good fortune to witness the removal of the KMT from the presidency. Democracy is on the rise in Taiwan.
Contrary to what China may think, Taiwan is NOT a part of China. It never was, except for a brief few moments back in 1895. In a series of bizarre convoluted "reasonings" I have no space here to explain, Taiwan got trapped in a diplomatic "never-never" land where even our great democracy does not recognize it as a sovereign nation. We have no embassy here, yet we buy billions of dollars worth of computer hardware from them each year. I think that one of the most amazing feelings I have had since living here among the Taiwanese is this fear of China. You have to be here for a while to feel the presence of this huge communist country with a pathological desire to make Taiwan its "province". It is like trying to sleep with a gorilla in the next room and you know there is no way to lock the doors...and even that may not protect you. It is feeling that is hard to describe. Tibet faces the same fear and worse.
This has been an amazing time for me. The last time I "grew" this much was in Vietnam. There are all sorts of stresses while living in a culture so very very different from our own. But, one joy constantly repeats itself over and over. It is something I have seen all over the world during my travels. Taiwanese babies cry just like ours, small kids don't want to leave the store until 'mama' buys them that toy, teenagers want the same as any teen, and fathers kiss their kids on trains just like they do in the USA. You see these things and events are "translated" in your mind without language. People are people the world over when given peace and the time to enjoy prosperity. We are so different from this culture, yet so very much the same.
My great thanks to Diane and Scott for watching "the store" while I am gone and to all of you for letting this happen to me. Ironically, this "tour" in a tropical forest has only hardened my views on conservation and industrial forestry. If we do not expand the "rule of law" to protect native forests while properly managing plantation forests that provide wood products, our world is going to succumb to irreversible deforestation and all the ills that come with it. Native and plantation forests are not competing goals since each compliments the other to serve a public good. It is a great pity that the "global warming" advocates waste such great sums of money on one carbon and two oxygen atoms, when so much planting needs to be done. Taiwan and many tropical countries could easily expand their forests if made a part of a global effort. Maybe if we planted more forests at a quicker pace from Thailand to South Africa, there would be less concern about one carbon and two oxygens.
Robin Rose
Heng-Chun Tropical Botanical Garden
at the southern tip of Taiwan
Humidity 100% and 30C
Table Of Contents
Background
& Organization...................... 8
Mission Statement......................................... 8
Research.......................................................... 9
Optimizing Seedling
Growth Utilizing Seedling Target Characteristics, Fertilization, and Vegetation
Management (2 meters in 2 years) 9
Excavator Mulching, Fertilization and Weed Control......................................................................................... 20
The Influence of Planting
Microsite, Weed control, Stock size, Fertilization, and Soil Moisture on the
growth of Douglas-fir seedlings..................................................................................................................................................................................... 22
Critical Threshold Period Study, Effects of up to Five Years of
Consecutive Weed Control Relative to Growth Losses from Delaying Weed Control
for Douglas-fir and Other PNW Conifer Species................................................................................... 34
Plant Autecology Literature Review...................................................................................................................... 37
Cooperative Research Results , Vegetation Control, and Sulfur Treatments on
Swiss Needle Cast Infection and Growth of Coastal Douglas-fir Saplings............................................................................................................................................... 39
Technology Transfer.............................................. 43
Plans For 2000-2001....................................... 45
Publications of
Interest........................... 45