COMMUNITY TREE PLANTING GUIDELINE - SPGS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME 6.2 How do I protect my plantation from pests and diseases? Although there is no much threat so far regarding pests and diseases on trees being planted, it is important for the farmer to be vigilant about the health of their trees. You may not have the technical knowledge of controlling pests and diseases but you can contribute a lot towards the protection of your trees by periodically inspecting your trees checking on changes on the normal colour and health of leaves and stems. For instance when your tree leaves and branches start drying from top down wards that is commonly a sign of disease or pest attack. 6.3 How do I protect my plantation from animals? Because it is your investment worth of millions, the farmer must protect the woodlot from browsing cattle, goats and other wild animals like antelopes, monkeys and bushbucks. These prefer shoots of young seedlings. They can also damage seedlings by stepping on them. Wild animals need to be constantly scared away, and clear any hiding places for them. Make sure you regularly inspect your plantation to check the above. Eucalyptus tree attacked by Blue gum Chalcid wasp For the case of Chalcid attack that is much worse where the trees are stressed like on poorly weeded trees or on those planted off-site in swamps or in rocky, infertile soils, the advice is to plant Eucalyptus on the right site and keep off weeds. For the case of termite attack you may notice some trees drying up and when you up root, you find its root system is already eaten off. For this case the first suspects are termites. If the area has many termite mounds then you have a higher risk of termite damage. Some farmers are using Dursban and Furadan to control termites but for their proper use, please seek professional advice. Always make sure your trees are growing vigorously by weeding them well and promptly. Report any strange occurrence of either a disease or pest on your plantation to an appropriate authority. These could be District Forest Officers, National Forest Authority, <strong>SPGS</strong> and Forest Research Institute. The unwanted visitors! Cattle like goats and other animals should be kept out of tree plantations because they eat the young trees Talk to your neighbour about his/her wondering cattle or goats and if problem continues report to LCs and get a lasting solution. Otherwise a charge per tree destroyed may be calculated based on its replacement value plus compound interest depending on the number of years the tree has spent. 7.0 Harvesting And Replanting Tree Plantations Harvesting is the cutting of only mature blocks of trees when the best market for their sales exists. It is advisable to cut trees block by block as they mature depending on when they were planted. Remember that the most common rotation for trees is when they reach market size and not necessarily maturity. An appropriate harvesting system has to be designed according to the nature of the area of your plantation. 24 Community Tree Planting Guideline
LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME 7.1 What is the best time for cutting (selling) your trees? For Pinus caribaea, the recommended time is from 18- 25 years. For other tree species, pleases refer to table 2 (page 8). Your trees are like money put in bank to gain interest so that at some time in future you get more than the amount you banked. Likewise, as your trees grow each passing year, they keep on gaining more size (volume) until the recommended time of cutting them reaches. You get more money from a bigger tree. 7.2 Why is it not advisable to cut/sell your trees too early or too late after maturity? It is not advisable to harvest trees before the recommended time, because they are still small in size (volume) yet are still actively putting on volume. More so, the wood itself is not mature enough to attract better price. On another hand, allowing trees to grow beyond the recommended time of harvesting (after maturity) is not good unless its a tactic to delay for best market, otherwise trees by this time are no longer growing actively and some may start dying of old age yet you still spend money to protect them. However, the most important point to note is that, you can sell your trees at any stage of their growth provided there is the best market offer for them. But you have to be careful of the fact that the best value of your trees is from big saw logs! 7.3 Replanting of felled tree plantations After a given block is harvested, it should be immediately prepared for replanting in the forth coming rain season when is still free of weeds. Many of the trees like pines, musizi, or Terminalia are commonly propagated by seed. For most Eucalypts and teak that develop stems from cut stumps after harvesting, this re-growth (coppices) can only be used for fuelwood and small poles plantations. Eucalypt plantations that have been grown for timber or large poles must be replanted after harvesting and the coppice re-growth should be frequently cut or sprayed until they die off. The replanting is necessary because many of the trees will have been cut down at various stages of thinning and any re-growth from such stumps will have been suppressed by shade from the remaining trees leading to less stocking.– refer to Guidelines No. 9,10 & 21 on growing eucalypts. 8.0 Plantation Record Keeping There are some records that are particularly important for a tree farmer to safely keep for accountability and for future reference. Such records among others include: 1) Nursery records Information on tree species, seed origin, date sown, amount sown etc. 2) Plantation compartments records like; • Compartment identity (Name or number etc) • Compartment size • Planting details (tree species, date planted, spacing, survival etc) • Weeding status • Pruning plan • Thinning plan • harvesting plan 3) Pest, disease and fire outbreaks 4) Tools and equipment stores 5) Expenditure and revenue 6) Weather records (Only for commercial planters) and 7) Map (s) of the area. However, for the community planters, the above records are not necessary. Only an activity register showing what is planned to be done and what has been completed is enough. The time when each activity is done should be recorded. For instance when you planted your trees. 25 Community Tree Planting Guideline
Page 1 and 2: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME COMM
Page 3 and 4: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME Cont
Page 5 and 6: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME 2.0
Page 7 and 8: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME ii.
Page 9 and 10: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME Rwoh
Page 11 and 12: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME from
Page 13 and 14: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME 6. W
Page 17 and 18: PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME 4.3 Beating
Page 19 and 20: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME Clea
Page 23: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME Sinc
Page 27 and 28: LAWLOG PRODUCTION GRANT SCHEME APPE

COMMUNITY TREE PLANTING GUIDELINE - SPGS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?