yes buckthorn. the berries are a giveaway. plus shiny bark and the poaky thorns

I have my work cut out for me then. This particular section of woods is overgrown with it to the point that you almost have to low crawl to get through the woods.

don't forget that even after you remove the big stuff, all those berries that have fallen make tons of babies. You have to watch the area for years, although the little seedlings can be easily pulled by hand.
If I were you, i would take it out in sections and then see how much work it is for you to monitor each section - that way you don't bite off more than you can chew. If you can whack the plants before they get taller than you, they won't be mature enough for berries, and that will help you a lot!

We have a ton of buckthorn-- we live about 40 minutes from you, and the county soil and water folk apparently consider our property to be the buckthorn hotbed of our town.

My tool of choice is my black and decker alligator loppers-- my kids call it "chainsaw scissors" . That, along with a spray bottle full of roundup concentrate to treat the stumps and a big brushfire to dispose of what you cut down, and you can make a pretty big difference in a weekend. But I expect this will be something I will be working at for the next several years.

If you have smaller buckthorn, you may be able to borrow a device to help you pull them, but I'm guessing your buckthorn is more like mine-- often 15 feet tall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alligator loppers

I spent a bunch of time walking the woods this weekend and identifying trees. Wow, the buckthorn is mature and it's everywhere. There are quite a few with a 4-5" diameter that are more small trees than shrubs.

I noticed that in the areas that had big mature buckthorn, the ash trees nearby were dead.

The bark is very unique, so once I spotted a few it became very easy to identify the buckthorn.

I remember how discouraging it was when I first discovered Buckthorn was growing on my 1.25 acre lot. In 2005 I posted some pics on Garden guides and got an ID. I had both common Ramnus cathartica and glossy Frangula alnus, and some were large specimens also.

I cut med-large specimens and treated the stumps with concentrated brush killer, either Brush b gone or BK-32. Also an occasional spray on the seedlings and smaller ones. I have a weed wrench, but I don't bother trying to pull anything much over .75 inch diameter. Buckthorn has terribly intractable roots!

It is mostly controlled, but the seedlings keep coming back up and the birds also bring in new berries from the neighbors' yards, some of whom do nothing to control the invasive plants on their property.

The previous owner of this property lived here for 38 years. She planted all sorts of invasives such as Norway maple, shrub Honeysuckle, Buckthorn, burning bush, Eleagnus, and others. The nurseries were selling this crap 50 years ago. Oriental bittersweet was used in Xmas decorations, that were thrown out in the yard after the holiday. Now all these plants are prohibited from sale in this state.

What I can't understand, is why Buckthorn? What a butt-ugly plant. No flowers to speak of. At least honeysuckle is pretty and smells nice! Only redeemable quality is that it's super hardy and near indestructible. Which makes it real easy for the nurseries to propagate. :-/

This post was edited by terrene on Mon, Oct 13, 14 at 18:28

Hi Terrene. We've spoken often before, both here and other GW forums about such matters. Back in the '70s, before I knew what was up with BT, I admired it greatly in the woods in winter, it's glossy bark and shiny black fruit making an admirable effect against the snow. Of course, my mind has been opened to the horror of this relentless invader since those days. But I just wanted to say, even for a hard-core native plant enthusiast, BT did have my admiration back then!

Shiltsy, if you care to, dig around in the native plants, woodland gardening, and other forums here on GW. You will find vast pages of our discussions regarding control of this and other troublesome invasive plants.

+oM

Yes I guess the berries are somewhat attractive, although there are much prettier fruits on many native and non-native plants (IMO). My grey and alternate leaf dogwood berries are gorgeous, although they last about 6 days because the birds go nuts when they're ripe.

Otherwise, I don't see much ornamental value to either of the invasive Buckthorn species. This makes me wonder, of all the Eurasian plants they could import and sell, why select Buckthorn? Profitable because it's so easy to propagate and highly adaptable?

Wisconsintom, wow you noticed it way back in the 70s. When did you realize it was invasive?

Probably by 1980! I must have been one of the very first guys around here to take up Nordic skiing, and it was on these jaunts to a local cedar swamp/natural area that I first noticed the BT. But it didn't take long to realize what was up.

+oM