Treating Invasives

I took advantage of the mild weather during the first half of November to search out and eliminate some invasive shrubs.  Most of what I find now are young plants that have not matured enough to produce seed.  Birds will continue to bring in fresh seeds, and plants resulting from those seeds are what I am primarily dealing with now.  Birds that left seeds on this spot had a varied diet that resulted in a cluster of my four primary target plants.  Clockwise from upper center are Autumn Olive, Multiflora Rose, Bush Honeysuckle, and Japanese Barberry.

Japanese Barberry is a recent invader of Blue Jay Barrens and has not become very well established.  By the time the first Barberry plants began showing up, I had already begun dealing with invasive shrubs.  Only a few got up to fruiting size before they were discovered and removed.  This species is easy to control by stump spraying with glyphosate.  Even a maximum recommended dilution of the chemical is enough to kill the roots.

I’ve still got a couple of small patches that continue to produce a wealth of new Bush Honeysuckle plants each year.  Fortunately, the glyphosate stump treatment quite effectively kills this invader.  It’s discouraging to annually deal with so many new plants, but the sites are small and the number of plants continues to decrease.  Five years ago, the new Honeysuckle growth here was thick enough to block the view of the ground, so I am making progress.  I have to remind myself of that fact each time I work here.

Only one larger Honeysuckle specimen was found this year.  It was roughly six feet high, but was not old enough to produce fruit.  Last year, this shrub would have been only two or three feet tall and would have been easy to miss in its position on the lower slope of the creek bank.  I don’t mind finding an occasional large plant, as long as I catch it before it has a chance develop fruit.

Autumn Olive is the most difficult shrub to control at Blue Jay Barrens.  I use a stump treatment of undiluted glyphosate 41% concentrate solution.  This method is quite effective as long as the plant being treated is displaying healthy, bright green leaves.  Once the leaves begin to yellow and drop, it becomes more difficult to get a good kill.

Older, fruit bearing  Autumn Olive specimens can be killed by the same stump treatment, but there is a high likelihood of root sprouts appearing the next growing season.  It may take a couple of years to eliminate the sprouts.  Seedlings also tend to recur for several years following the death of the large shrub.  Birds feeding on the fruit, drop some of the seeds from the previous day’s feast.  Some of these seeds are ready to sprout immediately, while some may wait through a few seasons before germinating.  The good thing is that no matter where the new plants are coming from, their numbers tend to lessen with each passing year.

Autumn Olive can grow so rapidly that they sometimes seem to appear from nowhere.  This area of Indian Grass was mowed last November.  Small Autumn Olive plants, hidden in the thick grass, were cut off a few inches above ground level.  With a healthy root system already in place, the regrowth from those cut stems reached six or seven feet high in one season.

This is what the base of that plant looked like.  The dead stub in the center of the stem cluster is the single stem that was cut off last year.  It’s obvious that mowing is no way to control Autumn Olive.

To effectively treat young Autumn Olive, you must cut the stem flush with the ground.  The problem is that the stem you see may not be rising directly above the root.  Autumn Olive commonly produces a horizontal stem that later gives rise to the aerial branches.  This horizontal stem is often hidden by thatch or neighboring plants.  In the photo, the stem to the left was attached to the root and the vertical shoot emerged three inches away.  Cutting and spraying at the base of the vertical shoot would most likely not kill the plant.

I am also beginning an assault on the invasive Crown Vetch.  It was planted along the road about 40 years ago, but only recently has it begun to show up out in the fields. 

I was going to spray the Autumn Olive with Clopyralid this summer, but neighboring vegetation made it impossible to get the spray through to the vetch leaves.  Instead of spraying, I went around and identified the locations of all infestations, about ten in all.  I mowed them this fall and will do my spraying next spring when the vetch begins growing.  I guess I don’t have to worry about running out of invasives to deal with.

Fence Repair

Following a two day wind event, I took a walk along the new fence line to see if any branches had fallen on the fence.  No branches were found, but one large tree trunk had run afoul of the fence on its way to the ground.  To anyone unfamiliar with this view, the abundance of downed trees makes it hard to identify that one that is causing the problem.

There it is.  I have to admit it chose a nice place to fall.  Centered between two wood posts on a patch of level ground, it was probably the easiest place along the whole line to work on removing the log.  The most time consuming part of the job was the one mile round trip to the barn and back to get the tools I needed.

With a high tensile fence such as this, each wire strand stretches independently of the others.  The upper most strand takes the most punishment, while the lowest strand is hardly disturbed.  In this case, the fence wire is actually supporting this section of log off of the ground.  It was fortunate that the log, partially decomposed and heavily worked on by Pileated Woodpeckers, broke into sections on impact with the ground.  The log was held at an ideal position for cutting.

The fallen log caused increased tension on the fence wires that produced an upward pull on this steel post.  This was identified as an at risk post during installation of the fence and was equipped with a steel cable attached to a ground anchor.  The post was able to lift about half an inch before the cable came taught and stopped the rise.  This is how it was supposed to work.  I’m glad it followed the plan.

After cutting the tree trunk in two about a foot back from the fence wire, the remaining log could be pushed up and away from the fence.  Once the log was clear, the fence wires jumped back into place.

In order for the fence to take this kind of abuse without damage, it is necessary to install post clips and staples in a way that allows the wire free movement.  When the tree hit the fence, the added tension was spread over several hundred feet of wire.  Had the wire been firmly attached to these two posts, it surely would have broken as the tree made its way to the ground.

The fence is back to being good as new.  This is why high tensile makes such a good choice for use in wooded areas.

Number 542 - Maple-leaf Viburnum

I just found Blue Jay Barrens plant species number 542, Maple-leaf Viburnum, Viburnum acerifolium.  My first encounter with this plant was many years ago as an undergrad taking a course in local flora at the OSU Marion campus.  I thought it was a wonderful plant then and am certainly happy to have it now as a resident of my property.  This is a native plant, bringing my list of native species up to 446.  That number is approximately 25 percent of the total number of native plants in the State of Ohio.

The Viburnum is growing in a cedar thicket at the base of a south facing slope.  Up until now, few understory species, with the exception of the invasive Autumn Olive, have colonized this area.  It’s certainly nice to see a native shrub here.

This area was cropped up until the mid 1950’s when it was abandoned and let grow up in Eastern Red Cedars.  The deeper soil at this location allowed the cedars to grow rapidly into tall thin trees.  On April 4, 1987, 18 inches of heavy wet snow fell during about a 10 hour period.  The weight of the snow bowed some trees over and brought others all the way to the ground.  Fallen and curved tree trunks are still visible today.

The leaves of Maple-leaf Viburnum are hairy on both sides and feel like soft fabric.

New twig growth also sports a nice crop of hair.

The six narrow Maple-leaf Viburnum trunks in this little group are most likely the result of seed or seeds deposited in a bird dropping.  It’s possible that all six are part of a clonal group developed from the original seedling.  It’s also possible that more than a single seed germinated in this spot.  Seeds from a single bird dropping would naturally end up in close proximity on the ground.

Fruit on the plants are an indication that the cluster of plants are the result of at least two seedlings developing on the site.  Viburnums are not self fertile, so require pollen from a different plant in order to produce fruit.  A clonal group is essentially a single plant and would not produce fruit unless pollen was carried in from somewhere else.  There are no other Maple-leaf Viburnums anywhere near this clump, making it unlikely that a pollinator carrying the correct pollen happened to visit these plants.  The majority of fruits had already been consumed prior to my discovery.  I hope the birds leave the seeds somewhere nearby.  I’m looking forward to watching this plant flower and develop through the summer next year.

Cedar Waxwings

Eastern Red Cedar fruit is ripe and the Cedar Waxwings have moved in to feed on their namesake meal.  As if in response to the overabundance of cedar fruit produced this year, the Cedar Waxwing flocks are larger than I normally see here in the fall.  This individual is part of a flock that numbers in excess of 100 birds.

The birds are in almost constant motion as they move to and from the fruit laden cedar.

Time spent in the branches of the cedar is spent in consuming as much fruit as possible.

There’s no shortage of fruit on this tree now, but if the Cedar Waxwings stick around, the tree will probably be without fruit in less than a week.  This is a show that I look forward to each year.

The Cedar Waxwings move in for a quick feed and then move away to perch on the leafless branches of nearby deciduous trees.

The birds act as though the food will disappear if they don’t grab it right away.

The bird in the center consumes at least a half dozen fruits in this 16 second video.

If these videos fail to perform, they may be viewed on YouTube by clicking Video 1 or Video 2 or Video 3.