Maple Grove Group Battles Buckthorn
An army of volunteers spread out across an area on a peninsula in Rice Lake in Maple Grove to clear out as much of the invasive buckthorn as it can. Neighbors stood by as more of the lake became visible from their homes as the trees fell one at a time.
Volunteers cut down buckthorn in woods along Rice Lake in Maple Grove.
“It’s such a problem , everywhere,” said City Forester Shane DeGroy. “There’s no amount of manpower the city could use to keep up with it, so the fact that the residents are helping out and volunteering makes all the difference.”
The volunteers, made up of Rotary Club, Lions Club, and Maple Grove Arbor Committee members, call themselves MG Buckthorn.
“It feels like once people know and understand it, and they can do their part in their neighborhood, we can get rid of most of it,” said Arbor Committee Member Mary Parenteau.
She says this is the perfect time of year to start to identify the bushes and trees–some of which have bluish-black berries on them–in your yard.
“The leaves on the trees turn color and drop,” she said. “Buckthorn will still be there. It’s like a mist. It kind of comes in and it doesn’t leave. Like fog. Fog will leave, buckthorn does not.”
Buckthorn is identified by its leaf buds that resemble the feet of deer and the thorn that protrudes.
DeGroy said buckthorn was originally brought to North America by European settlers as a fine hedgerow that grew dense and made a good property divider. But, he said the common and glossy buckthorn varieties have taken over, especially in Minnesota.
“It out-competes other vegetation,” said DeGroy. “It’s not good for wildlife. There aren’t any benefits to it.”
Maple Grove City Forester Shane DeGroy, right, walks with a volunteer at a buckthorn eradication effort on Rice Lake.
Volunteers cut down the trees, which can grow up to 30 feet tall, and immediately treat the stumps with a RoundUp-like compound.
“We use a dobber to try to limit how much chemical is getting spread on anything other than the stump,” said volunteer Tom Anderson. “If you don’t treat it, I wouldn’t even cut it, because it just spreads out, and you’ve got a bigger mess then.”
Anderson sees the group’s efforts as a legacy.
“I look at this as ‘what are we leaving behind for our kids?’” he said. “It’s just going to get worse. It’s taking over our woodlands and our forest and our wetlands. So what do we want to leave behind for them?”
