Weed and Pest Control in Forestry by Colin Palmer review

I never thought I would be asked to review another book which covered chemical pesticides. After completing two postgraduate degrees in Pesticide Science and then paddling in pesticides for the following 15 years, I thought I had seen the last of the hard stuff, except perhaps for spraying my roses with fungicide to control black spot and mildew or using molluscicide pellets to kill slugs and snails. 

Today’s use of chemical pesticides is a shadow of what it was half a century ago. There are lot fewer of them. Overall they are relatively safer and restrictions on their use, including what application equipment can be employed, are considerably tighter. 

That said, the use of chemical pesticides is still vital in a wide range of disciplines and fields including forestry and farm woodland management, but all the more difficult because safe, sound and detailed information on the selection, handling and application of pesticides is becoming increasingly difficult to access. 

Nobody seems to want to talk about the hands-on use of chemical pesticides anymore, even though these chemicals are still used, and indeed still have to be used, almost on a daily basis. 

And that’s why this book from Colin Palmer is so important for foresters and farmers trying to protect their trees, forest plantations and farm woodlands – because it provides all the technical information required, but within a strict set of safety parameters. That the book has the word ‘safe’ on its cover – ‘A guide to the safe and effective use of crop protection products’ – is a departure from just a few decades ago when the word was unlikely to have been used in the equivalent texts of that time.

Though the majority of this book is concerned with what environmentalists often refer to as ‘hard chemical pesticides’, it also highlights a range of other crop protection products which come under the biological control banner (e.g. bio-insecticides and bio-fungicides) and the bio-induction banner (e.g. endophytes, elicitors and biostimulants).

I can honestly say I have never come across a pocket-sized book on this subject which is crammed with so much useful (indeed, vital) information about pesticides, their action, application and use, which makes it all the more difficult to do it justice in the space available. However, here goes. 

The book is essentially partitioned into five sections on regulation; environmental safety; application; forestry herbicides; and insect, fungi and mammal control.

REGULATION

The regulation of pesticides and their use is the obvious starting point, because an appreciation and understanding of pesticide regulation and approval and operator safety will prevent anyone using these products from falling foul of the law and/or incurring serious health conditions. This section deals with regulations and approvals covering the pesticide products, the equipment used to apply them and the ways which they are used.

Things of particular importance in this section include the requirements for spray operator qualifications, and a comprehensive appreciation and understanding of pesticide hazard symbols and PPE (personal protective clothing and equipment) for use throughout the whole pesticide process including the mixing of pesticides prior to application.

The section ends with an interesting and intriguing account, entitled ‘Glyphosate and Carcinogenicity’, which I thought was an extremely brave and good thing to do.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

When I started out, environmental safety was not given much thought. Indeed, we had almost managed to completely wipe out our native birds of prey through the arable use of organo-chlorine insecticides – DDT, dieldrin and the like. But that has all changed, with protection and preservation of environmental integrity from the use of pesticides right up there and under the spotlight.

Environmental hazards, environmental risk assessment, care for the continued integrity of soil and water sources during pesticide application and sustainable forestry are all covered. Glyphosate is in the spotlight again under the title ‘Glyphosate and the Environment’.

APPLICATION

This third section deals with application equipment and the practical application of pesticide products. This is an essential topic, because even if you have the most potent pesticide in the world, without the right equipment and method of application, failure to control the pest, disease or weed will ensue, likely damaging the operator and/or the environment in the process.

Topics covered include hand-held sprayers, spinning disc applicators, sprayer calibration, adjuvants and wetters. And of course spray nozzles, which are the smallest component of the sprayer but arguably the most critically important.

FORESTRY HERBICIDES

This is by far the largest and longest section and for good reason, because the use of herbicides has traditionally been the largest component of pesticide application in forestry (and still is, despite there being considerably fewer approved herbicides ready for use, with much more restriction on the market).

There is a supremely succinct account of herbicide action and activity, followed by formulation type and crop tolerance and season of use. There follows a comprehensive blow-by-blow account of all herbicide actives approved for use in forestry. Likewise, there is a comprehensive account of broadleaf weed and grass weed control in upland and replant forests. This is broken down into ‘Control of Perennial Broadleaved Weeds’, ‘Bracken Control’, ‘Scrub Control’ and ‘Cut Stump and Stem Treatments’, ending with a detailed account of herbicides and their use in ‘Farm Forestry (Farm Woodlands)’.

INSECT, FUNGI AND MAMMAL CONTROL

By its intrinsic nature, this section is relatively thin compared with weeds and weed control in forestry, but essential nevertheless. 

There is a detailed account of large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) management, which includes the range of insecticides approved and available for the control of this major pest of seedling conifer stands. Also covered is the use of urea, and Phlebiopsis gigantea to control Fomes butt rot disease (Heterobasidion annosum), and also a selection of deterrents and control agents for mammalian pests of forestry – deer and rabbits.

STAY SAFE WITH PESTICIDES

Anyone thinking about simply opening a bottle, can or bag of pesticide should stump up £17.95 and buy this book and make one of the most sensible and safe purchases they have ever made – to make sure the job in hand is carried out correctly, and with the desired weed, pest and disease control and management achieved, but most of all to protect you, others and the environment during the entire pesticide operation. 

While reviewing this book, I mused how there must be a decreasing number of old pesticide warriors who could reasonably be expected to review such a work. Some have passed from natural causes, but others from not-so-natural ones. Stay safe.