Currently, over 60% of known NNIP infestations in the BWCAW are quite small, less than 25 square feet. We expect to eradicate these under our proposed action and limit the spread of larger infestations. This will benefit native vegetation, fish and wildlife habitat, and the eco-logical integrity of the BWCAW.

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Mmmmm! Good luck with with the gout weed (Aegopodium podagraria-that is a polecat based on my many experiences).The daisy was part of the interview process, now I will be at a disadvantage. Here I thought Hypericum was a native; who decides what is nonnative enough to use the poisons up in that neck of the woods anyway? Please define "native"?

Been dumping packs and washing boots, and the like for years. Motivated by things like whirling disease, seeing the occasional dandelion on trail, and that constant ongoing guerilla battle with buckthorn around the metro. People and the things we do do have an impact just like the beaver has an impact; perceptions are interesting are they.

Thank DB for putting this here.

One of my nieces is recreation director of one of Kentucky's larger cities and as such is in charge of building a "greenway" (hiking/biking path) along the Licking River.

Being smart, she begged me into becoming one of her trail stewards in charge of a volunteer crew on periodic work days spent ridding the area of invasive, non-native plants.

Our current focus is Asian bush honeysuckle, which has run amok in this area for decades.

I have spent many hours shivering in the cold, sweating in the heat, cutting this invader with chain saws, bow saws and lopping shears, then dragging away the brush and spraying the stumps.

We work for three hours at a time, then try to feel good about having cleared an area not much bigger than a front lawn.  Nothing grows beneath its "canopy."

This stuff is tenacious, with trunks nearly as big as my thigh.  

We have miles to go.

My arms hurt.

This stuff is the enemy.

I see it in my sleep.

You must not let invasive species like this get a foothold in sensitive areas. I'm all for an aggressive, early response.

-- kypaddler

kypaddler wrote on May 4^th, 2011 at 1:26pm:

spraying the stumps.

Does that work? Just spray the stumps after cutting? I have some buckthorn, which I think needs to be a few years old before it can reproduce. When I see flowers I cut 'em at ground level but....

I dig and pull it out DB. Easy this time of year, but it will be the routine have no doubt. Yes the stumps can be sprayed, I believe the product is called Garlon.

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Does that work? Just spray the stumps after cutting?

Don't know about the effectiveness against buckthorn, but against Amur honeysuckle, which we're targeting, yes, it does work -- at least according to the experts from the NKU Center for Applied Ecology, who are overseeing the technical end of the Licking River Greenway project.

It's called the "hack and squirt" method, and we use glyphosate. Must spray within five minutes of cutting.

-- kypaddler

Yeah, I'm a bad neighbor. I have bishops weed under the buckthorn under pines that need to be cut down. The buckthorns are volunteers and provide a decent screen where a fence is forbidden. Even the little ones are tough to simply pull out of clay. The bishops weed also volunteered and keeps the pine cones from washing into my neighbor's yard in a hard rain. It's an ecosystem that works - for me - if I keep an eye on it.

Quote:

Yeah, I'm a bad neighbor.

Former neighbor of mine paid a lawn-care company to spray his lawn for dandelions and other noxious weeds. The "sprayer" made his way to the edge of the property, took a look at the sea of yellow blossoms in my yard and all the "puffballs" whose seeds were being lofted into the air with every breeze, and muttered: "well there's your problem right there."

Pxss on it. I'm raising my kids, not grass.

But your buckthorn reminds me of the patch of Devil's Walking Stick we had growing up that kept trying to bust out of its little island. That stuff was relentless.

-- kypaddler

hmm, wonder if i should transplant some kudzu into Quetico?