Vol. VI No. 4
July-August 2012
Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost, & Biofuel Professionals
NEWS
Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur Oklahoma
Attention Readers !
Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, please check out these leading companies advertised in this issue:
Bagging Systems
Amadas Industries – pg 21 Hamer LLC – pg 11 PremierTech Chronos – pg 13 Rethceif Packaging – pg 24
Buildings & Structures
Study Shows: Invasive Red Cedar Makes a Good Mulch Product
ClearSpan – pg 19
Compost Turners
HCL Machine Works – pg 20 Wildcat Mfg Co – pg 23
Dust Suppression & Odor Control Buffalo Turbine – pg 5
Mulch Blower Trucks Express Blower – pg 10
Mulch Coloring Equipment/ Colorants Colorbiotics – pg 9
Mushroom Compost
Hy-Tech Mushroom Compost – pg 20
Shredders, Grinders, Chippers & Screening Systems Allu Group Inc – pg 12 Doppstadt – pg 15 McCloskey International – pg 18 Morbark Inc. – pg 2 Peterson – pg 7 Premier Tech Chronos – pg 13 Rotochopper Inc. – pg 17 Screen Machine Industries – pg 6 Screen USA – pg 19 West Salem Machinery – pg 8 Wildcat Mfg Co – pg 23
Used Equipment
EarthSaver Equipment – pg 20
I
BY P.J. HELLER
t’s little wonder that eastern red cedar has been called “public enemy No. 1.” In Oklahoma, alone, the invasive species has already taken over some 8 million acres of land, converting the ecosystem from grasslands and native diverse prairie where cattle graze to a red cedar woodland. “The red cedar woodland has a lot lower biodiversity, a lot lower wildlife value and a lot less aesthetic value,” says Rodney Will, a professor in the department of natural resource ecology and management at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Much like something out of a science-fiction movie about an alien invasion, the bushy and scraggly native red cedar trees are reportedly taking over nearly 800 acres of land a day in Oklahoma. They are costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year — due to decreased grazing, increased water consumption, reduced recreation opportunity and increased wildfires — as well as the untold costs to landowners attempting to remove the trees and stem their incursion. “Right now to clear it, it costs a rancher, farmer or landowner at minimum several hundred dollars an acre . . .” Will says, noting that clearing the trees generally entails cutting them down, stacking them and then conducting prescribed burns. “But once
it [red cedar] reaches a certain size, it’s almost a threshold, and you can’t get rid of it without very expensive mechanical treatment. The cost of that is prohibitive.” A similar situation with the trees is occurring throughout the Southern Great Plains, he says. A two-year study by Will and other researchers at Oklahoma State offers what they say is a viable use for the pesky trees: mulch. “Given concerns about the future availability of woody residuals and harvesting trees of intact, functioning ecosystems for use as mulch, sources such as eastern red cedar . . . may provide alternatives to traditional cypress, hardwood, and pine mulch,” according to the study by Will, Adam Maggard, Thomas Hennessey, Craig McKinley and Janet Cole. “In regard to plant growth and soil variables, red cedar has ranked among the best of all of the mulch types we are studying,” says Maggard, who wrote his graduate thesis on the study and is currently working toward his doctorate at Oklahoma State. “Basically, the bottom line is, if you like the way it looks, you should use it,” he says. The study, begun in 2009, was designed to compare red cedar mulch to seven commonly used Continued on page 3