Safe and effective herbicide use

When used properly, herbicides can be a useful tool in the integrated weed management toolbox. Cal-IPC and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) are working together to provide the best guidance for safe and effective herbicide use – to protect sensitive habitat, wildlife, and the people who work and play in California’s wildlands. Our goal is to provide land managers, restoration specialists, and other users with information on the situational effectiveness of all control methods, herbicide and non-herbicide, to guide and support their invasive plant control objectives and maximize the effectiveness of their chosen control methods.

Cal-IPC and our partners are working on two separate but closely related projects to increase the effectiveness of invasive plant control while reducing negative environmental impacts:

Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Herbicide-Based Approaches to Invasive Plant Management

In 2021, Cal-IPC, DPR, and a team of advisors created the Weed Control User Tool (WeedCUT), a decision support tool that provides guidance on a range of methods for managing invasive plants in wildlands using non-chemical approaches.  We are in the process of expanding this tool to integrate guidance on when and where chemical treatment would be most effective. Once complete, this tool will provide land managers with the best available information on situation-specific methods for controlling invasive plants.

Mainstreaming Effective Herbicide Calibration for Wildland Weed Work

Calibration is the process of measuring and fine tuning the output of pesticide application equipment. This is an essential practice to ensure that herbicide treatments use the least amount of chemicals while still effectively controlling the targeted plants. The purpose of this project is to train applicators and other practitioners that work in wildland settings on herbicide calibration through the development and dissemination of in-person training sessions and web-based resources focused on proper calibration techniques for herbicide applications in wildlands.