Autumn Olive
We need to remove many autumn olive shrubs, an invasive species actually introduced by conservation experts in the 1830s as a “beneficial” wildlife plant. Its invasive nature became apparent after the monster was already unleashed.This Friday someone from the conservation district is coming to look at our land and discuss our project. I was delighted to find out that there is actually some financial assistance available. I’m hopeful that we can address this more swiftly than originally thought with the availability of funds. I will NOT use chemical means to remove them, so it will be labor intensive.
We let our fields rest for 7 years after a century of farming and, unfortunately, lots of Round-up. The soil was dead due to the repeated assaults of chemicals and cultivating. For the first few years weeds didn’t even grow. Luckily it is Nature’s nature is to heal if left alone. So over the years the field has begun to come back to life. Now, wild strawberries hug tightly to the ground blanketing much of the open field. White pine, gray birch and larch trees dot the landscape. I found a common hop tree growing under the protection of an older white pine. Elm, locust and “interesting” fruit trees are showing up as well. One tree displays fruit like cherries on the branch but they are actually small apples. But because of the decision to introduce a non-native shrub to promote bird habitat so many years ago, the main attraction of this field is autumn olive. This shrub out competes most native plant species making the regrowth of native trees an impossibility without our intervention.
The area we have designated for pollinator habitat was bush-wacked last week. We will do this a few more times as autumn olive grow tenaciously once cut. But repeated mowing results in the shrub eventually giving up the fight. In the areas where we will plant trees, the shrubs will be pulled out completely since mowing won’t be an option. I don’t really love the idea of mowing repeatedly due to its affect on insects and wildlife but this will be a short lived intervention and better than chemicals in my opinion. I’ll need to wait until fall or next spring to pull out the remaining shrubs due to cost. Hopefully the project will be be approved by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)! I’ll find out in January or February 2023.