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The management of competing vegetation has evolved with forest management over the past half century and is now an integral part of modern forestry practice in many parts of the world. Vegetation management, primarily using herbicides, has proven especially important in the establishment of high-yield forest plantations. There has been a substantial amount of research quantifying the wood yield gains from the management of competing vegetation over the past few decades. We reviewed results from 60 of the longest-term studies in North America (Canada and US), South Africa, South America (Brazil) and New Zealand/Australia. About three-quarters of the studies reported 30–500 per cent increases in wood volume from the most effective vegetation treatments. In North America, where the longest-term studies for a variety of tree species were between 10 and 35 years old (or from 20–100 per cent of …