ESCANABA — There are many nasty actors in our forests. Two of the worst are buckthorn and autumn olive. Both hail from Europe and were introduced as ornamentals in the 1800s. Autumn olive was once also promoted by the Soil Conservation Service as a “conservation” species.

To be clear, as common names can be confusing, I’m referring to Frangula alnus as glossy buckthorn and Elaeagnus angustifolia as autumn olive. I might throw in Rhamnus cathartica, European buckthorn, for good measure. All are common and pernicious in many parts of the Lake States.

Buckthorn tends to grow on moister soils, often in swamps and swamp edges. Autumn olive is more of an upland and old field invader. Both are commonly found under powerlines, where overhead birds like to congregate and do their thing.

These are good species for forest lovers to learn to identify. After all, killing the right shrub is important. Know your enemy! Buckthorn, especially, can be mistaken for cherry. I once had a grouse hunter chastise me for killing “cherries”. I’ve even run across folks who call buckthorn “tag alder”, which is odd, as there is almost no similarity other than habitat. With a little practice, spotting these shrubs species is easy.

Once established, these alien shrubs require persistence to eradicate. They stump sprout well, so cutting and burning simply makes them happy. Additionally, their seeds remain dormant in the soil for years and can regenerate a stand just when you think you’ve gotten the upper hand. You can cut and hack almost forever with only disappointment to show for all the hard work.

Killing these alien shrubs is a really good reason to use herbicides, even if you’re not fond of chemical treatments. Early in the growing season, glyphosate works reasonably well on the fresh foliage. This may be the easiest strategy but doesn’t always get a great kill. The mature leaves of both buckthorn and autumn olive develop waxy surfaces on their leaves which can block foliar herbicides.

Strategy number two, cutting and stump application, is more effective but far more tedious. Working in these shrub tangles can be frustrating. You need to lug along cutting tools and a container of brush killer, triclopyr is one good choice. Once the stem is cut, or a few stems, one must stop, remember where the stumps are, and then treat them. This doesn’t sound too difficult, until you actually try it in one of these shrub thickets.

The best time to perform this carnage may be in June, when the shrubs have translocated a good share of their reserves for the recent leaf-out process. The fresh leaves work hard to move goodies to the roots, including the Trojan horses. However, this is also the mosquito and black fly season, an important consideration. And, swamps have more water in them in the spring.

Various cutting tools may be needed. Small, thin sprouts are easy to hit with a foliar spray but challenging to cut and find the thread-like “stumps”. On the other extreme, both buckthorn and autumn olive can grow to several inches in diameter. In these cases, a chainsaw and stump treatment might be best.

Cutting buckthorn during the winter will produce a nice knee-high canopy in the spring, or the next spring. This canopy serves as a great surface for effective glyphosate application, with minimal “collateral” damage.

Buckthorn practices allelopathy, which means it uses its own chemicals to kill competition, partly explaining the loss of native vegetation in buckthorn stands. I don’t know if autumn olive is allelopathic but would not be surprised if it is.

Folks who like to sweat a lot will herald other eradication techniques, which work well, if you’re dealing with only a few plants. A number of grubbing tool styles exist and most work well, although you’ll work much harder when dealing with hundreds, if not thousands, of stems.

Neither buckthorn nor autumn olive are good for wildlife. Sure, the birds will eat the berries, but there is little nutrition and the birds might actually get the “runs” as a result. Think of those power lines. However, I have to admit that the autumn olive flowers have a delicious aroma and the red berries are quite tasty. I suspect they would make a good jam.

The shrubs will offer structural diversity in a forest stand, which will please a suite of nesting birds, but nesting success is not as high as that in native shrubs.

Few animals browse either buckthorn or autumn olive, although both can be nibbled from time to time, or if an especially cold winter grows long.

Unfortunately, large parts of the Michigan forest are undergrown with buckthorn, and upland areas covered with dense stands of autumn olive. Statewide eradication may be impossible from a cost standpoint. However, on your own property, you may find some satisfaction, along with some good exercise, and some quality time in the woods.