Managment results

Above is an area that was infested with waste high black raspberry brambles and oriental bittersweet sprouts.  Exotic shrubs and a couple small trees were cut and treated in this area a few years previous.  But the impenetrable briars made the recruitment of prairies species very difficult even though the overstory of shrubs were removed.  So last winter I treated the brambles and vines with an oil soluble triclopyr solution containing 8% active ingredient.  The results were great.  Nearly all the treated plants were killed with a single treatment and there was no noticeable damage to non target vegetation.  I used a sponge stick applicator (read about sponge/paint herbicide sticks here) to apply the herbicide directly to the stems of the target plants.  In the photo you will notice some black raspberry sprouts that I had missed last year.  This just means I'll need to make another pass through this coming dormant season to reduce the existing briar cover by another 90%.

The stump on the left was a white pine seedling that was cut last year.  Most pines do not resprout when cut, so no herbicide was necessary.  The black cherry on the right was treated with the same solution as the brambles, using a sponge on a stick as an applicator.

Here's a representative shot of the treated area.  Many of the grass like plants in the shot are 1st year sideoats grama seedlings.  A few individuals have even managed to put up a few inflorescences.  This was the only plant I seeded last winter at this site, so everything else you can see was what was existing in the seed bank. The thistle rosettes are all Cirsium discolor, a native thistle that large butterflies and other pollinators will go nuts for in July and August.