buckthorn and why it should be removed from our yards

Plenty of people have buckthorn in their yards and have no idea that it is an invasive species that causes problems. I'm guessing that many people think that it's pretty foliage when it starts growing there.  This attractive foliage was a big factor in the original importation of this terrible invasive.

If you look closely, you'll see berries - the way that buckthorn can spread so far from where it grows. Birds eat the berries and poop out the seeds anywhere and everywhere. Each year I have to remove some from my yard that undoubtedly got started that way.

 

The image below shows the size of the whole buckthorn tree shown above.  Someone has let this grow to a substantial size in their front yard, providing lots of seeds to spread this invasive nightmare far and wide.

I sometimes volunteer at habitat restoration workdays in local forest preserves. Removal of buckthorn is one of the top habitat restoration priorities throughout the Cook County Forest Preserve system. The photo below shows an area that was quite dense with buckthorn before a workday at Dan Ryan Woods this spring. We cleared a LOT of it so that the native species shown here could thrive.

The photo below shows another area of Dan Ryan Woods where buckthorn has NOT been cleared. It does not allow sunlight and air circulation and outcompetes native understory plants for water. With such intense competition, it's nearly impossible for fallen acorns to germinate and become new oak trees - critically important in what have historically been oak savanna ecosystems. Buckthorn emits chemicals that kill or stunt many native plant AND animal species. Left unchecked, this could eventually become a monoculture of buckthorn.

At many locations in our neighborhoods, buckthorn shows up weed tree fences and hedges. That's my name for borders made up of an assortment of invasive and aggressive species like buckthorn and mulberry.   Here's an example that's been mostly neglected for years (invasives growing through a chain link fence) and allowed to grow aggressively to the point where it was taking over the sidewalk.

This page is a helpful resource on identifying 2 common types of buckthorn and reasons why it's such a huge problem for our forests and native plants. Here's another good resource.

Here are some tips on how to get rid of buckthorn. It tends to resprout after cutting, so it may take more than one attempt.  If you use Roundup, be careful to use it only on the cut stump so that you don't kill other plants around it.  It's much less of a headache if you can remove it when it's small.

Eradicating buckthorn wherever possible is important for the health of our forests, wetlands, waterways and other ecosystems. Take a look around your property. If you find buckthorn, please do our local forests a favor and do your best to eliminate this pest.