FIELD TOUR - First Conference of the Short-Rotation Woody Crops Operations Working Group

Tuesday, September 24, 1996

Safety Briefing

SAFETY FIRST is our major concern. To ensure your safety and the safety of others, please remember to:

1. Wear your hard hats at our field stops. Struck by falling objects is the leading cause of injuries in the woods.
2. Stay with your group and on the designated tour routes. Equipment operators don’t have eyes in the back of their heads.
3. Stay a safe distance from all operating equipment.
4. Do not climb on machines. Watch your footing boarding and exiting the buses and in the woods.
5. Be cautious and alert for safety hazards. If you see any safety concerns please inform your tour hosts.

Tour Schedule

7:30 AM Leave J.R. 's Executive Inn - Paducah

8:30 AM STOP 1 - Wickliffe Cottonwood Nursery

Stop 1 Nursery Management - Dave Garrett

Oak Species Tests - Vic Ford

9:00 AM Leave Nursery

9:45 AM STOP 2 - Westvaco Wildlife Management Area

Stop 1 Moist-Soil Unit Waterfowl Management - Jamie Quinn & Pat Hahs

Stop 2 Cottonwood and Sycamore Agroforestry - Jim Baer

11:30 AM Noon Lunch at Columbus-Belmont Battlefield State Park overlooking the Mississippi River (Courtesy of Westvaco)

12:30 PMLeave Columbus-Belmont Battlefield State Park

2:00 PM STOP 3 - Island No. 3

Stop 1 Cottonwood and Sycamore Plantation Harvesting and Site Preparation - Andy Malmquist & Dave Garrett

Stop 2 Herbicide Applications in Cottonwood and Sycamore Plantations - Vic Ford & Kenny Robertson

Cottonwood Coppice and Machine Planting

3:00 PM Leave Island No. 3

4:00 PM STOP 4 - Robbins Fiber Farm

Stop 1 Background and Design - Jim Baer

Demonstration of Fertigation System - Dwight Rainwater

5:00 PM Leave Fiber Farm

6:30 PM Arrive J.R. 's Executive Inn - Paducah

TOUR STOP SUMMARIES

STOP 1 - COTTONWOOD NURSERY

Nursery Management - Dave Garrett

• Nursery has approximately 8 acres of cottonwood stool beds in production, established from unrooted cuttings and are kept for three years.
• Nursery is sprayed with a pre-emergence herbicide and usually mechanically cultivated at least once.
• The stool beds are irrigated with the Ag-Rain traveling irrigation gun, normally starting by June 1st to provide 1 inch of water per week.
• Fertilization is started in May and granular 18-18-18 is applied with a farm tractor. When whips exceed a height of 4 feet, liquid fertilizer is applied through the irrigation system.
• Insecticides are sprayed as needed to control the cottonwood leaf beetle and adult cottonwood borer.
• The whips reach a height of 15 feet by October. They are harvested in December, delimbed, lopped down processed into cuttings.

Sweetgum and Oak Growth on Acid Clay Soils - Vic Ford

• Reforestation of old agriculture fields and cut-over ground can be accomplished using these species; Nuttail and pin oaks are the preferred species of the oaks.
• Productivity of these species on these sites comparable to loblolly pine growing in the Highland Fim. Site index at 25 years for these species is between 65 and 80 feet.
• These species can be managed at a low intensity with chemical site preparation. Mechanical site preparation can also be used.
• Fertilization is an option depending on soil levels.

STOP 2 - WESTVACO WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA

WMA Moist Soil Unit Management - Jamie J. Quinn & Pat Hahs

• 1991 Westvaco signed a 20 year MOU with Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources (KDFWR). KDFWR agreed to assist in managing the area for wildlife (the primary target species being waterfowl, esp. ducks), help set regulations and patrol the area for law enforcement.
• The WMA is a unique venture in that it is the first public/private wildlife conservation partnership in support of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in the Lower Mississippi Valley Project Area.
• Westvaco WMA integrates forestry, agriculture and moist soil management to create habitat diversity for waterfowl and other game & non-game species.
• The WMA is comprised of 3,402 acres and is closed to the public from November 1 to March 15th of each year. There is 644 acres open to public hunting year round with the purchase of a permit.
• Westvaco has installed 3 wells capable of pumping over 10 million gallons of water per day, 6.5 miles of levees have been constructed with 24 water control structures to impound water including a large sheet pile structure in Town Creek, and developed a self guided walking trail and drive-through tour.
• Westvaco has also completed two Ducks Unlimited MARSH Projects in which DU contributed $50,000 to restoring and developing over 675 acres of waterfowl habitat on Westvaco WMA.

Agroforestry Cottonwood Plantation - WMA - Jim Baer

-This cottonwood plantation was planted in 1983. Today the trees are 90-100 feet tall and 14-16 inches in diameter. This forest was thinned (removed 30 percent of the trees) during the winter of 1993. Agroforestry was practiced. In this cottonwood tree plantation successful crops were grown for three years in the 30-foot zones between the double rows of cottonwood trees. Today, the trees still allow enough light through the canopy to plant wildlife plots of milo, millet, and buckwheat.

STOP 3 - ISLAND NO. 3

Hardwood Site Prep - Dave Garrett

• After harvest, D-6 and D-7 dozers are used to shear the stumps and any unmerchantable understory trees. The debris is raked into a windrow and burned.
• The site is disked with a large offset disk pulled by a 150hp farm tractor. This disking is followed by a smaller offset disk that breaks up the large clods and prepares the site for row marking and slitting.
• Row marking and slitting establishes a 12 ft. by 12 ft. grid pattern on the soil that assures that the cuttings will be planted at the correct spacing and at the correct number of 300 trees per acre. The cuttings are planted at the junction of the row mark and slit. The slitting operation also subsoils the site which aids in planting the cutting at the proper depth and ensures that the trees will grow in a straight line which is necessary for cultivation.

Cottonwood and Sycamore Plantation Harvesting - Andy Malmquist

Overview of North Area

• Geographic regions...uplands vs. bottomlands
• Programs
  • Hardwood plantations
  • Pine plantations
• Will be looking at a Gary Casey logging job in sycamore using Bell felling saw and grapple skidder.

Competition Control in Sycamore and Cottonwood Plantations - Vic Ford

• Site preparation is necessary to control perennials (especially vines) and penetration of herbaceous canopy.
• Herbaceous weed control is completed by pre-emergent and post-emergent, and by mechanical systems.

STOP 4 - ROBBINS FIBER FARM

Background, Design and Future Plans - Jim Baer

• The Robbins Fiber Farm Tract (340 acres) was acquired June of 1995 and was selected because it was reasonably priced, located on a good road with 3-phase power, and abundant high quality ground water. While the soils are sandy, excessively drained, and low in nutrients, they do permit excellent year round equipment access and offer uninterrupted drip fertigation free from the interference of natural rainfall events.
• With minimal additional construction, the centralized drip irrigation system will eventually serve 180 acres of production plantings (4 zones), 14 acres of research (12 plots),and a 5-acre nursery. The most unique feature of this design is that all three systems can be fertigated independently from the same wells and filters located in the irrigation center.
• Fifty acres of cottonwood cuttings and once acre of sycamore seedlings were planted last March in the Research and Production areas at 11' x 8' (495 trees per acre). The balance of the fiber farm will be regenerated during the next two planting seasons placing approximately 200 acres under drip irrigation.

Fiber Farm Research Activities - Gail Simonds

Demonstration of Fertigation System - Dwight Rainwater

• System Components
  • Motorola “Aeronaut” Controller
  • Variable Frequency Drive Motor
  • Spin Keen Disc Filters
• Management Techniques
  • Daily water and fertilizer rates
  • Tensiometer
  • Pan evaporation

File posted on March 17, 1998; Date Modified: February 21, 1999