grassland restoration network

Above is the cover and title from a management note we published in Ecological Restoration.  That was a lot of work.

Some tips to apply basal bark herbicide:

Be careful applying these mixes in quality vegetation areas.  It is not only a brush herbicide, but a broadleaf plant herbicide. It kills forbs!

In nice areas tighten up your application method.  You can leave the pressure very low on the pack, and just gently press the trigger to get a minimum of herbicide on the stems.  Or use a paint brush or paint sponge and carefully wipe the stems with the mix.  You can also cut the shrub and dab on some mix this way, but the cutting is not necessary.  You can wire a sponge to the tip of your backpack sprayer wand and then dab or wipe the mix with little dripping and no overspray.  Don’t drip herbicide on good plants.

I generally don’t apply basal bark mix on hot days because it volatizes and perhaps harms nearby good plants.  In good areas don’t apply unless it is sweater weather or cooler.

Mark some plants with tree marking paint so you can do your own testing. It is fun.

Expect to return to the area several years in a row to treat the ones you missed.

Expect to get some off target kill within 2 to 8 inches of the stems you sprayed, depending on how carefully you sprayed.

While treating honeysuckle also treat the autumn olive, buckthorn, and mesophytic trees like box elder.

Typically, I apply the mix to all the stems and all sides of the stems.  When there is thorny brush in the way I don’t worry about getting all the stems treated.

Go after the scattering of shrubs in a field before worrying about the huge thickets.

Wear safety glasses.  Folks who wear prescription glass might get side shields for the frames or wear goggles over your glasses.

Bring some paper towels to clean up.  Some rubber gloves for when you are filling your pack or fiddling with the pack.  Once you have got the pack working good you can go back to your thicker and warmer gloves.

Don’t fill the pack all the way.  Halfway is plenty and will last a long time.

Take your time.  You are going way faster than those folks cutting the shrubs.  You can whistle while you work while they are still back at the shop preparing their chainsaw.

Elsewhere, I describe how to take care of your Birchmeier pack.

This year, we ramped up our basal bark solution on the advice of Rick Schulte of Crop Production Services.  We increased the Garlon4 from 17% to 20%.  And we add one quart of Vanquish herbicide to each 12.5 Gallons of mix.  Others have adopted this mix so I am trying it out.

Future research question.  If I basal bark honeysuckle in winter, say January, does an April fire that top kills the stems still kill the root of the shrub?  My current sense is yes, but I don’t have the data.  Update of September 2025:  Kaleb Baker demonstrated in a controlled study that prescribed fires done soon after basal bark application did not diminish the effect of the herbicide. https://grasslandrestorationnetwork.org/2024/04/25/a-study-on-controlling-bush-honeysuckle/

I sometime hear colleagues say basal bark on invasive honeysuckle “sort of” works.  I find basal bark with Garlon4 kills nearly all of the time.

Note in the photo below the blue tree marking paint I applied to the stem.  In the fall, October 10, 2015,  I sprayed a little basal bark solution on the lower stems of this plant and about 50 others.  By marking the stem with paint I can return later and see that indeed the plant is dead.  If I took you to this area and exclaimed that I basal barked the shrubs you might say it “sort of” works.  You would say that because there would be live honeysuckle here, there, and seemingly everywhere.   That would be until I pointed out that every shrub I herbicide sprayed and then marked with paint is dead.  There are shrubs around the treated plant that are not dead because they were not sprayed.  The plants sprayed are dead.    So applying basal bark in October with the leaves still on worked.   In my next post, I will tell you about a spring application.

I used our Terex P110 skid loader with a Fecon flail brush head to open up an old fire break that had not been touched for perhaps a decade.  Below is the photo before and then about 30 minutes after.  Now, if I did this work myself, by hand with a chainsaw, it would take me a few full days.  So brush mowers do quick work.   But follow up is important:  Next May I need to go to this fire break and spray the re-sprouting brush with our basal bark herbicide mix.   This would be when the honeysuckle re-sprouts are maybe a foot tall, showing off to me where they had been hiding under the mowing slash.  The oil based herbicide sprayed direct down on the sprouts is very effective at killing them.   The prescribed fire regime these breaks support will help to bring back this rare community of savanna and wet prairie.

About 100 attended our recent workshop in the Platte River area of Nebraska.  Thank you to Mardel Jasnowski, Chris Helzer, Bill Whitney and their peers for hosting us.  For two days we were outside hiking around prairie restorations, and sharing stories of success and defeat. I went home ready for more.

Our 2017 GRN workshop we think will be at Konza Biological Station in Manhattan Kansas.  We are working on a date.  Stay tuned.

Below, Bill Whitney sharing ideas with colleagues.

2016GRN_Agenda

The 2016 Grassland Restoration Network Workshop will be in Aurora and Wood River, Nebraska on September 13-14. This year’s workshop is hosted by The Nature Conservancy and Prairie Plains Resource Institute, with additional funding assistance from Pheasants Forever. The workshop agenda (along with other logistical information) is attached.
Please fill out the registration information below and email it to Mardell Jasnowski (mjasnowski@tnc.org). You are welcome to participate in one or both days. Be sure to note which meals you will be present for. After you have registered, we will send you more detailed information with directions to the sites, etc. Registration is free for the first 75 people we hear from. There will be a cost of $35 per person for any additional registrants.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS AUGUST 19, 2016

Please fill out the information below.
Name
Organization/Affiliation
Address
Phone Number
Email Address
Will you take part in the optional Tuesday morning tour in Aurora?
Will you be eating Tuesday evening supper?
Will you be eating Wednesday lunch?
Do you have any dietary restrictions? If so, list them here:
Thank you to Pheasants Forever and the Nebraska Environmental Trust for helping to cover the costs of registration for this conference.