Street Trees and Herbicides

Abstract

Street trees, as pointed out by many people, are in a vulnerable position in regard to injury from several sources. One of the sources is the practices of people (homeowner, municipal worker or contract applicator) who apply chemicals near these trees. Some of these chemicals are herbicides. Herbicides are designed to act upon a plant's metabolism and, therefore, the expression of this action, or injury symptom, if you will, quite often resembles the result of some other factor such as disease, drought, air pollution or mechanical injury acting on a plant. In order to better understand the potential of this class of injury, an understanding of herbicides currently in use is essential.