Part of my amateur woods development plans, is this little section. It's at the "corner" of where my densest sugar maple stand meets a drainage ditch that runs diagonally through my property. The stand also contains a lot of black locust and black cherry. There's several dead or dying ash trees here too that will be gone in a few years. This part was too thin, and it was overrun by brambles. Honeysuckle, raspberries, wild grape vines, and some kind of unidentified pricker bush out of a nightmare. But the seedling bank is ready do go - there's dozens of sapling sugar maple, black cherry, and black locust trees that were buried underneath all of it. I'm going to plant some acorns that I collected from my oak trees last year here as well. Removed 3 loads like this, and dumped them in a low spot in the back corner of the property: Cut up a large elm branch that was buried underneath all of it. This, along with some small diameter elm in my log pile, and a little more that I cut in the "side yard" (another future project), will be heading over to my brother-in-law's tomorrow morning.
Is that buckthorn? We have it here, it's invasive, and prickly. Good job on the clean up too. Plus you got some btu's out of it as well.
The thorny tree is a black locust sapling. I didn't get any pictures of the pricker bush - that thing got me pretty good. It was all tangled up with itself and some grapes. [EDIT] Actually it's the reddish looking bushes in the first pic. It was all coiled back on itself like friggin concertina wire too!
Nice work Shawn Curry. Two birds with one stone. It won't be long before it will be really hot when doing that kind of work. I'm trying, a little at a time, to squeeze time in for stuff like that. Not enough hours in the day though.
Sounds like it could be multiflora rosa......Back in the 50's/60's the USDA was paying farmers to plant it for shelterbelts/natural fences,erosion control & ground cover (Dad helped his brother in law in NW Missouri with some with that) and by the 80's it was considered a noxious weed & everyone is still having trouble getting rid of it.Pretty white flowers,smells like other roses but is very invasive in pastures,forest & cropland edges & very hard to get rid of. Like raspberry bushes sometimes do it reaches the ground,grows into it & more sprouts appear nearby to start over again. Burning,backing over it with a brushhog,chopping out,certain things like Roundup or Tordan are effective but its still an uphill battle. Think balled up & smashed piles of barb wire & you're getting close..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_multiflora
Ah, BL baby. Buckthorn is nasty though. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/id.html
The only success I have had with Buckthorn control was is pulling it out. Trying to cut it and then adding chemical doesn't do the trick, it seems to grow back in a few years.
Guarantee that's what it is. I let it grow around my fence lines . Keeps the neighbors from encroaching. Any where else it get mashed with the loader
Really nice work Shawn. That's the way to do it, a little at a time getting rid of that mess and let the trees thrive. I do the same thing a little at a time each year. I cut the grapevines and Honeysuckle and usually spray the sticker bushes and such with Roundup. It effective, but you need to watch what your spraying it on. After a few years the snowfall flattens out the brush and it's gone.
Great stuff Shawn!! Me and my buddy across the road dropped this locust 3 years ago and had to trim it earlier today.
Anyone heard of this for farming, like wind breaks, soil conservation etc? http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/52201/
