Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: South Carolina
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

The purpose of this project is to reduce the canopy cover of water tupelo around the pockets of suppressed baldcypress trees in an effort to provide the necessary light and space to allow the trees to reach canopy height. The specific objective of this project is to assess impacts of canopy opening on growth dynamics of tagged and banded bald cypress trees to develop and improve habitat restoration techniques. It is hypothesized that increased sunlight (reduced competition) will enhance growth of the released bald cypress. Task 1 Tupelo trees that are shading young cypress trees will be identified and injected with the herbicide Habitat. Task 2 Growth of the target cypress trees will be monitored using growth bands placed around the tree at breast height designed to expand with the tree.