Cover it up! Using plants to control buckthorn

Background

Minnesotans spend millions each year removing buckthorn from their properties. Yet owners find the invasive shrub returning to the same spots again and again. This vicious cycle happens because buckthorn is better at filling empty spaces in an ecosystem than most other native plants.

“Cover it Up!,” led by MITPPC-funded ecologist Peter Reich, is looking to develop strategies that will improve and diversify the native plant community while keeping buckthorn away for good. Together with more than a dozen local partner organizations, Reich’s team is finding that native grasses, wildflowers, sedges, ferns and juvenile trees can provide enough shade to prevent new buckthorn growth.

Research questions

• What native planting techniques can reduce the recurrence of buckthorn after removal?
  
  
• How much shade is needed to prevent buckthorn from thriving?
  
  

Practical implications

This work could change the way we think about buckthorn management, helping Minnesota land managers save significant time and money in their long-term restoration efforts.

Details

Funding:

$327,000

Collaborators:

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Friends of the Mississippi, St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Stantec

Research Team:

Peter Reich, principal investigator

Lee Frelich, co-principal investigator

Peter Wragg, post-doctoral associate

Michael Schuster, post-doctoral associate