Buckthorn Busting

Went to help RBG staff remove buckthorn from its property near McMaster University on Sunday. Crossing the 403 on the way there.

Buckthorn is an introduced plant in North America, that is classified as an invasive species. It out-competes native plants for nutrients, light, and moisture, partly because the leaves and roots emit a substance that is poisonous to the roots of other plants. Similar to black walnuts and sunflowers which also have this allelopathic feature - severely reducing the plant population growing beneath them. It contributes to erosion by shading out other plants that grow on the forest floor. It lacks “natural controls” like insects or disease that would curb its growth, and serves as host to other pests, such as crown rust fungus and soybean aphid.

It’s easily identifiable in fall because while most other trees have already shed their leaves, its egg shaped green leaves remain on, the leaves appear opposite one another, like outstretched arms and also its pea sized black berries.

I brought along some tools. They provided some tree pulling tools called Extractigators, some devices to girdle a tree to big to pull, some shovels (a bunch of native vegetation was planted), a couple of crappy hatchets. I brought along my kukri. Have I mentioned that I love my kukri? I do. As much as I love it though, I don’t get nearly as many chances as I would like to use it. Walking down the street with it strapped to my belt during my day to day affairs would likely mean frequent conversations with police officers. I can move very deftly through very rough terrain, so it isn’t like I would use it then to hack and slash at vegetation. I try to be very low impact on my camping trips, and if I do use my BushBuddy, a few handfuls of gathered dry twigs suffice.

So when knowledgeable biologists grant me permission to exterminate specified trees with gleeful abandon - hot diggety! Any buckthorns under an inch or two in diameter could be pulled from the ground, roots and all. Anything much bigger than that, was girdled, in order to kill it. I used my kukri to hack a circle all around it.

Chips flew. Razor sharp and hefty, and with strong, controlled swings, if I had wanted to take the whole tree down and not just remove an area of bark, it would have been quite easy.

Several times I saw people futilely flailing away with one of the axe shaped lumps of steel with a handle on it, trying to remove stubborn roots. I went over and with one swing severed the offending root. 

After doing that a few times, I realized I could use it as a spokeshave, and easily and quickly sliced off foot long strips of bark and cambium. Did dozens of trees that way. 

I also brought along my Leatherman Vista which I used in this instance, but the kukri was more fun.

Had lunch around a campfire. We roasted weenies, but putting my hands near the heat wasn’t fun so I grabbed some split logs (bottom left) and put the stick in between two of them and let them do the holding. Fun bunch of people, gorgeous weather, nice location, some exercise, good cause. Perfect day.

The spot where we removed buckthorn.

Afterwards I sauntered home at a leisurely pace through the gorgeous fall landscape. Too nice a day not to.