Invasive Species Removal?

macrocarpa

Branched out member
Location
Midwest
When doing invasive species removal like flowering pear, honeysuckle, multiflora rose - I assume chipping on site risks spreading seeds?

Also, what would be the best time of year for treating the freshly cut stumps with herbicide? Any suggestions for the best herbicide for this method? Mostly dealing with flowering pear.

Thanks!
 
I’ll second Tordon, it’s excellent, but be careful with it. It’s very strong, and has high soil motility, so if it gets anywhere but on the cut stump, it can move through the soil and kill other things unintentionally. As for timing, any time works with Tordon, but the active growing season is better, and it’s best to avoid really hot, dry spells.

You can also use Garlon, if I recall, though we never did.

Crossbow is excellent too, especially for foliar applications, but I believe it too can be applied to cut stumps.
 
We use Garlon instead of Tordon most of the time unless it is one stump here or there. If you are doing it in a woods and treat a bunch of stumps, you are asking for problems.

Garlon 4 or 3. Garlon 3 if it is in a wetland site.

Glyphosate at at least 25% works too...but maybe not as well.

In the projects we do, everything is cut and left in the woods...no chipping or dragging it out. That would increase the price probably 8-10 fold. The seed bank is already there and follow-up will be necessary. One more year of seeds isn't going to make a difference.

We get best results in fall/earlier winter. Another forester told me he wanted spring treatments on a project...we did not get a good kill. I will avoid that.
 
We use Garlon instead of Tordon most of the time unless it is one stump here or there. If you are doing it in a woods and treat a bunch of stumps, you are asking for problems.

Garlon 4 or 3. Garlon 3 if it is in a wetland site.

Glyphosate at at least 25% works too...but maybe not as well.

In the projects we do, everything is cut and left in the woods...no chipping or dragging it out. That would increase the price probably 8-10 fold. The seed bank is already there and follow-up will be necessary. One more year of seeds isn't going to make a difference.

We get best results in fall/earlier winter. Another forester told me he wanted spring treatments on a project...we did not get a good kill. I will avoid that.
Excellent info! Thanks!
 
I use a paint brush and a little blue dye, keeps things pretty tidy
That is a good method. Years ago, we treated thistles in pachysandra by wearing a cotton glove over a rubber glove; dipped the glove in a pot of roundup, and then just grabbed each thistle. Killed the all off nicely with no off-target application.
 
That is a good method. Years ago, we treated thistles in pachysandra by wearing a cotton glove over a rubber glove; dipped the glove in a pot of roundup, and then just grabbed each thistle. Killed the all off nicely with no off-target application.
I've never done that myself, but have seen the recommendation and have passed it along to several others - especially with poison ivy growing among other ground cover ivy like English ivy or pachysandra.
 
We’ve used garlon, sightline and glyphosate formulas for cut stump. We’ll add tracker dye to keep track of treated stumps on large projects. Use a pretty high rate I think up to 50/50 the same method that @JD3000 mentioned.

I’m interested in trying that cotton glove method next time on PI if it’s on a tree.
 
My procedure for buckthorn

Weed Wrench small stuff
Cut tops off bigger and leave two foot stumps
Haul out all brush
Cut stumps low
Use high dose age Roundup with red dye on stumps. Spray bottle works well. Less slop and spillage
Hey Tom,

Could you please share what formulation of roundup you use? Thanks!
 
A friend just told me about somebody demonstrating an EX-ject at an invasive species conference he attended. Anybody use one of these? I remember them - or something like them - being discussed at college and the professors not being impressed. But that was 25 years ago...I assume something has changed since then (but maybe not). Don't remember the reason of their dislike. Perhaps it is species controlled. Neither of the lists include Honeysuckle or Autumn olive (2 of the biggest problems we have in the woods here).
 
For those of you who make a living using herbicide to treat invasive species, worth checking out Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion.

We get lost in the weeds in this industry and it’s always good to take a step back sometimes. I’m only partly through it, but the basic takeaway would be that we aren’t looking enough at what conditions led to the opening for different ‘invasive’ species to take hold. Also, that there’s no going back, essentially.

Ok you can throw tomatoes at me now I’m done with my speech!
 
I get the highest concentration that’s on the shelf at the garden center and don’t dilute It’s been a long while since I cleared buckthorn so I don’t recall the concentration

I’m sure you can Google and find an accurate number
 
For those of you who make a living using herbicide to treat invasive species, worth checking out Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion.

We get lost in the weeds in this industry and it’s always good to take a step back sometimes. I’m only partly through it, but the basic takeaway would be that we aren’t looking enough at what conditions led to the opening for different ‘invasive’ species to take hold. Also, that there’s no going back, essentially.

Ok you can throw tomatoes at me now I’m done with my speech!
I’ll look into that. I agree there is definitely something to this! I don’t like using herbicide for any situation and rarely use them. This is for a small community park that has an early pear infestation. Moving in from the edges. But sometimes the “solution” is the same mindset that created the problem in the first place.

Sometimes I think what if humans mess up the environment so much that invasive flowering pear is the only thing that can survive to produce oxygen and all the other benefits trees provide. A little extreme, but I’ve had that thought while removing them.
 
A friend just told me about somebody demonstrating an EX-ject at an invasive species conference he attended. Anybody use one of these? I remember them - or something like them - being discussed at college and the professors not being impressed. But that was 25 years ago...I assume something has changed since then (but maybe not). Don't remember the reason of their dislike. Perhaps it is species controlled. Neither of the lists include Honeysuckle or Autumn olive (2 of the biggest problems we have in the woods here).
I have seen them but never used one.
 
For those of you who make a living using herbicide to treat invasive species, worth checking out Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion.

We get lost in the weeds in this industry and it’s always good to take a step back sometimes. I’m only partly through it, but the basic takeaway would be that we aren’t looking enough at what conditions led to the opening for different ‘invasive’ species to take hold. Also, that there’s no going back, essentially.

Ok you can throw tomatoes at me now I’m done with my speech!
Another thought on this is when I walk through an older growth forest, I rarely see invasives. So in my opinion, professional arborists and foresters number one priority should be to identify old growth forests and get them preserved. I’ve been in this field since 2001 and never been presented with an opportunity to do this that wasn’t on a volunteer basis.
 
Another thought on this is when I walk through an older growth forest, I rarely see invasives. So in my opinion, professional arborists and foresters number one priority should be to identify old growth forests and get them preserved. I’ve been in this field since 2001 and never been presented with an opportunity to do this that wasn’t on a volunteer basis.
Another way to frame these kinds of environments is ‘climax’ forests, which can be helpful because the definition of old growth excludes much more forests. Climax forests may have been logged 2-300 years ago but have basically returned to the largest amount of biomass possible for that site.

But the argument in Orions book would suggest we should be hesitant to try to maintain any site exactly the way it is, because conditions change and climate is changing. In North America, many of these old growth or climax forests are missing one of their keystone species, the American chestnut. So to think we can ever go back to an America before the introduction of invasive species/pests/pathogens is impossible.

The presence of a new species from halfway across the globe is indicative of a site change and in some cases the invasive species is filling a niche that a native species is unable to fill as effectively. But more often than not it’s indicative of some stupid shit we did near the site. Built a dam, drained a swamp, built a development, etc.

I’m still waiting to see how she can turn the Bradford pear into something we shouldn’t just cut down though. Will let you know when and if that comes up…
 
Using any of the definitions of ‘invasive species’ we shouldn’t forget that humans are the most affective invasive species on the planet
But we don’t have to be….We chose to make the earth more ugly and dead, but we could make the earth more beautiful and alive. We all just except an economy that revolves around destruction.
 

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