Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Plants, Soils, and Climate

Department name when degree awarded

Plants, Soil, and Climate

Committee Chair(s)

Ralph E. Whitesides

Committee

Ralph E. Whitesides

Committee

DeeVon Bailey

Committee

Grant E. Cardon

Committee

Bruce Miller

Committee

R. Douglas Ramsey

Committee

Corey V. Ransom

Committee

Eric T. Thacker

Abstract

Wildland invasive weed treatment, a primary task of land managers, is expensive. Variables including weed canopy cover, slope, land cover, and weed visibility can affect treatment time and cost. A partnership was established with the Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate at Utah State University, Providia Management Group (PMG Environmental LLC) and Jardyne Technologies to develop a wildland weed treatment time model to better understand the effect of these variables on treatment time.

The “smart” spray wand (SSW) is a new precision tool used to develop this model. The SSW is a spray wand with an integrated GPS and a flow meter that can be
used with any type of spray system. The wand records the GPS location, herbicide flow, application time, and associated data of each treatment spray point, and provided necessary data for the development of the treatment time model.

The weed canopy cover had the largest impact on treatment time. If canopy cover, slope, land cover, and weed visibility information can be obtained for a weed
control project, the new model can be used to estimate treatment time and therefor cost. An accurate treatment time model could 1) establish an accurate weed control cost standard for contractors and land managers, 2) assist in planning and managing limited treatment resources, and 3) justify weed control funding requests and expenditures.

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