Battle Plan
The battle plan is simple. MN DNR takes a leadership role to recruit volunteers and team leaders. Team leaders are trained by MN DNR and then assemble teams of 3 to 6 volunteers for cutting with hand tools like loppers and hand saws, treating stumps and piling . Stump treatment is best done with a Buckthorn Blaster. Buckthorn Blaster training is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbkDjio9E1s. A certification quiz is available at:
This plan is based on the Reedsburg Wisconsin model described in the following link. It assumes volunteers complete all required DNR paper work.
The MN DNR Response for managing invasive species makes it clear they concede defeat and will do nothing to control buckthorn and honeysuckle. Fortunately other organizations are not giving up so easily. On 2/24/2024 I joined a group of volunteers to help Jason Ludwigson, Sustainability Coordinator and SRTS Coordinator for the city of La Crescent, clear more buckthorn, honeysuckle, vines and cedar trees from a couple of great lookouts in Eagles Bluff Park. Volunteers brought liability waivers and all kinds of hand and power tools. The result was a lot of cut and piled brush! This is how many organizations and the SNA department within the DNR are tapping into volunteer labor. Hopefully, at some point, Root River State Trail management will tap into volunteers to help reclaim the trail from invasive honeysuckle, buckthorn and vines that have over run so much of it.
The WI DNR has a more proactive model for volunteers. In Wisconsin volunteers are recruited by property managers and trained at WI DNR events to provide skills and certification. This includes chainsaw training and herbicide application that is often needed when fighting buckthorn, honeysuckle and wild parsnip.
Eagles Bluff Volunteers
