Tree and Brush Control for County Road
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Tree and Brush Control - For - County Road Right-of-Way Iowa Highway Research Board Iowa Department of Transportation Roadside Management Program University of Northern Iowa Project No. TR-462 Final Report October, 2002 Roadside Management Program, University of Northern Iowa • Principal Investigators • Wade H. Williams • Kirk Henderson Iowa Highway Research Board Advisory Committee • Buchanan County • Brian Keierleber, Engineer • Greg Schmitt, Roadside Manager • Clayton County • Jerry Weber, Engineer (chair) • Dallas County • Doug Sheeley, Roadside Biologist Disclaimer: The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Iowa Department of Transportation. Abstract This manual summarizes the roadside tree and brush control methods used by all of Iowa's 99 counties. It is based on interviews conducted in Spring 2002 with county engineers, roadside managers and others. The target audience of this manual is the novice county engineer or roadside manager. Iowa law is nearly silent on roadside tree and brush control, so individual counties have been left to decide on the level of control they want to achieve and maintain. Different solutions have been developed but the goal of every county remains the same: to provide safe roads for the traveling public. Counties in eastern and southern Iowa appear to face the greatest brush control challenge. Most control efforts can be divided into two categories: mechanical and chemical. Mechanical control includes cutting tools and supporting equipment. A chain saw is the most widely used cutting tool. Tractor mounted boom mowers and brush cutters are used to prune miles of brush but have significant safety and aesthetic limitations and boom mowers are easily broken by inexperienced operators. The advent of tree shears and hydraulic thumbs offer unprecedented versatility. Bulldozers are often considered a method of last resort since they reduce large areas to bare ground. Any chipper that violently grabs brush should not be used. Chemical control is the application of herbicide to different parts of a plant: foliar spray is applied to leaves; basal bark spray is applied to the tree trunk; a cut stump treatment is applied to the cambium ring of a cut surface. There is reluctance by many to apply herbicide into the air due to drift concerns. One-third of Iowa counties do not use foliar spray. By contrast, several accepted control methods are directed toward the ground. Freshly cut stumps should be treated to prevent resprouting. Basal bark spray is highly effective in sensitive areas such as near houses. Interest in chemical control is slowly increasing as herbicides and application methods are refined. Fall burning, a third, distinctly separate technique is underused as a brush control method and can be effective if timed correctly. In all, control methods tend to reflect agricultural patterns in a county. The use of chain saws and foliar sprays tends to increase in counties where row crops predominate, and boom mowing tends to increase in counties where grassland predominates. For counties with light to moderate roadside brush, rotational maintenance is the key to effective control. The most comprehensive approach to control is to implement an integrated roadside vegetation management (IRVM) program. An IRVM program is usually directed by a Roadside Manager whose duties may be shared with another position. Funding for control programs comes from the Rural Services Basic portion of a county's budget. The average annual county brush control budget is about $76,000. That figure is thought not to include shared expenses such as fuel and buildings. Start up costs for an IRVM program are less if an existing control program is converted. In addition, IRVM budgets from three different northeastern Iowa counties are offered for comparison in this manual. The manual also includes a chapter on temporary traffic control in rural work zones, a summary of the Iowa Code as it relates to brush control, and rules on avoiding seasonal disturbance of the endangered Indiana bat. Appendices summarize survey and forest cover data, an equipment inventory, sample forms for record keeping, a sample brush control policy, a few legal opinions, a literature search, and a glossary. TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 1 – Introduction .........................................................1 1.1 Defining the Objectives. ...................................................1 1.2 Determining the Level of Control............................................2 1.3 Getting Started ...........................................................3 1.4 Calendar of Operations (What to do when?) ...................................5 1.5 A Short History of Iowa Roadside Brush Control................................7 Section 2 – Traffic Control in Work Zones. ........................................12 2.1 Short term roadside work with no encroachment on the roadway...................13 2.2 Minor encroachment of a work zone onto a 2-lane road. .........................14 2.3 Major encroachment/lane closure on a gravel road. Traffic is self regulating. ....... 15 2.4 One lane closed of a 2-lane road. Closure less than ¼ mile long. ..................16 Section 3 – Mechanical Brush Control ............................................18 3.1 Mechanical Brush Control .................................................18 3.2 Safety and Mechanical Brush Control ........................................18 Cutting a Plant at Ground Level .................................................20 3.3 Hand Cutting ...........................................................20 3.4 String Trimmers & Brush Blades ...........................................21 3.5 Chain Saws ............................................................22 3.6 Tree Shears ............................................................25 3.7 Excavator Thumbs .......................................................27 3.8 Rotary Grass Mowers ....................................................29 Overhead Cutting .............................................................32 3.9 Telescopic Pruning Saw or Pole Saw ........................................32 3.10 Aerial Lift Trucks or “Bucket Trucks” .......................................34 3.11 Boom Mowers ..........................................................36 3.12 Brush Cutters ...........................................................38 3.13 The Limb Lopper ........................................................40 Removing a Plant by its Roots...................................................41 3.14 Grubbing ..............................................................41 3.15 Heavy Equipment .......................................................42 3.16 Mechanical Seeding ......................................................45 Brush Disposal...............................................................48 3.17 Brush Disposal ..........................................................48 Section 4 – Chemical Brush Control..............................................51 4.1 Methods of Chemical Brush Control .........................................51 4.2 Safety .................................................................54 4.3 Foliar Spray ............................................................57 Table 1. Herbicide nomenclature......................................60 Table 2. Foliar sprays used in Iowa....................................61 Table 3. Foliar spray product solutions to persistent trees and brush ..........62 i 4.4 Basal Bark Spray ........................................................64 Table 4. Basal bark products used in Iowa ................................65 Table 5. Basal bark product solutions to persistent trees and brush .............65 4.5 Cut Stump Treatment ....................................................66 Table 6. Cut stump products used in Iowa ................................67 4.6 Commonly Used Herbicides...............................................68 2,4-D .............................................................69 Dicamba...........................................................72 Fosamine Ammonium................................................74 Glyphosate ........................................................76 Imazapyr...........................................................78 Metsulfuron-methyl..................................................80 Picloram ..........................................................82 Triclopyr...........................................................84 Section 5 – Prescribed Burns....................................................86 Section 6 – Patterns of Brush Control in Iowa ......................................89 6.1 The Setting .............................................................89 6.2 Vegetation and Land Use Patterns...........................................93 6.3 Correlation: How Farming Patterns Tend to Predict Control Methods ...............94 Section 7 – Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management (IRVM) ......................97 7.1 Light Vegetation ........................................................98 7.2 Medium Vegetation.....................................................100 7.3 Heavy Vegetation ......................................................102 7.4 Establishing a Rotational Maintenance Plan..................................105 7.5 Documenting Work.....................................................106 7.6 Getting the Public Involved ...............................................107