Reading 'bout buckthorn, feelin' forlorn

So it’s Sunday and Riverview is closed. And lacking the social life to keep me occupied, I began browsing the internet to try to learn more about Buckthorn, specifically, how to get rid of it. And I must say I’m pretty impressed with how successful Buckthorn is about messing up people’s plans to kill it.

Buckthorn isn’t native to the Americas, it came from somewhere in Europe/Asia. We moved it over in the 1800's although it didn't become common until the 1900's. For quite a while it was sold as an ornamental and useful plant because it grew quickly and acted as a windblock. Farmers would buy it and plant it around their fields because the thick foliage blocked wind very effectively. Well, it certainly fulfills that. In Minnesota, it’s considered a ‘noxious plant’ and can’t be sold or transported. It’s so invasive and damaging to wildlife that it’s illegal.

Buckthorn seeds are really pretty sneaky. If you’re a bird, you might try to eat their berries. You will regret it. They have a pretty severe laxative effect and after consumption birds will quickly get rid of them and often become weak and dehydrated as a result. Disgusting thought it may be, diarrhea is a good environment for these seeds to grow, but it’s worth mentioning they can stay dormant in the soil for six years without dying. And they can float in water for up to a week while remaining viable.

Because they’re not from around here, they have no natural predators which also means they do nothing to feed or help the local wildlife. But they excrete chemicals that can actually inhibit growth of  nearby vegetation. They’re also really annoying in that they have thorns which are painful to walk through. I know this from personal experience. And their wood is completely useless and can’t even be used to burn or build. Burning the wood is impossible because of the sap in it and building with it is impossible becomes it cracks and snaps too much to be safe or reliable.

It’s also a host to things like aphids and some harmful fungi that kill trees and other native wildlife.

How to get rid of it:

Small shrubs can be pulled up, but if any of the root remains, it might regrow according to some. An outline from the biology department of the University of Minnesota assured me that it resprouts only from the stump, and not from the roots. They seem pretty legitimate but I would say that if you can get rid of the roots, you might as well.

Unfortunately, most of the buckthorn at Riverview is far too big to be pulled. The other option is to get a saw and cut it off at the base as close as possible to the ground. We have to be careful about this because if we let the branches fall, they’ll simply root in and start multiplying, so we have to bring them somewhere else. Because their seeds are so hardy, they’re not good for composting. And if we transport fallen branches anywhere we have to be careful to not spread around the berries and seeds. The seeds can be destroyed through burning, although I’m sure there’s other ways, that seems to be the most widely recommended. But even after we get the branches are berries away, eliminate them, and are left with just a stump, we’re not done.

Most sites on the internet recommend getting industrial-grade herbicide (triclopyr) and applying as much as three times to kill the buckthorn which is incredibly hardy. Some even recommend taking cans of it and soaking the stumps in it. I don’t believe that Riverview will do that because we avoid chemicals of death whenever we can.

 Another approach I read about was the tie garbage bags of sacks or something to block sunlight from the stumps. It’ll slow the growth, and as new buds try to come out, they can be clipped back until it finally runs out of steam. It’ll probably take a long time, probably many months per plant.

And the final step is of course to replant other hardy, native, and less aggressive plants in their place, like conifers and dogwood and eventually smaller vegetation too. Smaller plants can’t really flourish with buckthorn releasing chemicals that inhibit growth, sucking out the nutrients from the soil, and outcompeting them for the sun. But when the buckthorn leaves, there’ll be room for them.