Degradable Fabric Is Not the Answer for Tree Girdling

Ecological Sciences Forestry Technical Note Number MT-23

March 2004.
Craig Stange, Forester, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bismarck, North Dakota.

Last year (2002) a woven fabric company experimented with fabric with a degradable green center strip. They put no UV resistance in the green ribbons going vertically, and used normal black ribbons with UV resistance going horizontally. In the space of four months, the green ribbons deteriorated in the sunlight, BUT the green ribbons did not deteriorate when shaded or covered with dirt or sand. Now obviously, the green ribbons could have UV resistance added to make them deteriorate more slowly, but this would not impact the fact the degradable fabric WILL NOT DEGRADE in the shade.

The impact of this is enormous. Without sunlight, degradable fabric will not degrade around the base of the tree. You may still experience tree girdling, AND you will have lines of weeds between the trees where the fabric does degrade.

Experimental FadeAway Lumite fabric with degradable green center strip being installed in 2002.	Green degradable fabric is gone, except under the seedling!

So what is the answer? Well, how the fabric is cut makes a huge difference in tree girdling.

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