Cutting back Buckthorn....and I found a tree

On some farm land our family owns we set aside a few acres where we planted a variety of trees and shrubs along a creek that bisects the land. At that time (about 15 years ago) they recommended we plant ash, spruce and pine.

Over the past couple years I started looking at how it was growing and noticed Buckthorn was taking over in between the Ash. I contacted the NRCS office about the area over the summer and they said the best thing to do was cut it out in the fall and winter then come back next year and go after anything that sprouted back since this year.

About a month ago I began taking some of it out. I cleared out more Buckthorn today and took some pictures. Here is what it looked like when I started.




Here is what it looked like after a half hour of hour.



This is the cutter head I used on the end of the trimmer.



After stacking up the Buckthorn I noticed that buried in amongst them was this little little Cedar tree to the right of the pile.

I could almost hear the little tree screaming "I'm free!!!"

 

Looks like a lot of work!

 

That does look like some work! Are you just leaving the buckthorn stacked like that? Whenever I clear out brush, I like to leave it stacked for rabbit habitat rather than burning it. The population in my area is declining, I'm pretty sure it's because we have about 10 times as many hawks as we did 15 years ago so I'll do anything I can to help them survive (so I can then hunt them lol).

 

I plan on burning that and a smaller stack cut earlier this fall. But I have piled up a couple brush piles of other branches for that very reason

 

Needed to blow off some steam so I chewed away at some more buckthorn today over lunch.

Before




After

 

Thought I'd snap an update picture. Two years later and still no grow back, so I'm very pleased.

 

Nice, so that's proof that works!


I hear some people using chemicals to put on the stumps, that just seems like a lot more work.

 

Yes it does! I was a bit worried because numerous sources talked about using chemicals on the little stumps also.

Since I didn't do that, I crossed my fingers...and my toes...and even my eyes.

 

you need to rent a few goats! They will clean that area up really fast, all organic!

 

That's like twice in 2 days.

You goata be kidding me.