Invasive Species Removal
Ground to the Root Crown

Northeast Ohio's Invasive Species Crisis

Geauga County is ground zero for one of Ohio's worst invasive vegetation crises. The dominant offender — Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) — was introduced to the United States in 1898 as an ornamental hedging plant. By the 1960s, it had escaped cultivation. By 2000, it had colonized nearly every county in Ohio. Today, Ohio State University Extension estimates that honeysuckle dominates over 60% of the understory in Geauga County woodlots.

What makes honeysuckle so destructive is its "extended leaf phenology." Honeysuckle leafs out 2–3 weeks before native hardwoods in spring and retains its leaves 3–4 weeks later in fall. This creates a canopy underneath the canopy — an impenetrable shade layer that starves native wildflowers, tree seedlings, and ground-cover plants of the sunlight they need to survive.

The result is a monoculture understory. Walk into any untreated woodlot in Chardon, Burton, or Newbury and you'll see the same scene: mature oaks and maples standing above, with nothing below them but wall-to-wall honeysuckle. No wildflowers. No native shrubs. No tree seedlings growing to replace the canopy trees when they eventually age out. It's a forest in decline.

The Other Major Invasives in Geauga County

While honeysuckle is the dominant invader, it's far from the only one. Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) was planted by the USDA Soil Conservation Service in the 1940s–60s as a "living fence" recommendation for farms. It produces thousands of rose hips per plant, each containing a seed that birds carry to new locations. Today, multiflora rose forms impenetrable thorny barriers along fence lines, field edges, and forest margins across all 16 Geauga County townships.

Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) was introduced for erosion control and wildlife habitat. It has since proved to be a nitrogen-fixing invader that alters soil chemistry to favor its own growth over native plants. Its dense root systems and prolific fruit production make it extremely difficult to control once established.

Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) creates dense, low thickets that scientific research has directly linked to elevated deer tick populations. A 2009 study from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found that areas with dense barberry infestations had up to 120 deer ticks per acre — versus fewer than 10 ticks per acre in areas where barberry was removed. Common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) rounds out the "big five" invasives, creating dark, dense understory that eliminates native ground layer vegetation.

Why Cutting Doesn't Work — And Mulching Does

Homeowners who try to address invasive species with chainsaws, brush saws, or mowing equipment quickly discover the fundamental problem: cutting invasive shrubs actually stimulates growth. When you cut a honeysuckle stem above ground, the root crown responds with a hormonal growth surge that produces 3–5 new stems from the cut stump. One plant becomes a multi-stemmed bush that's even denser than what you started with.

Herbicide treatment (cut-stem application of glyphosate or triclopyr) can prevent resprouting, but it requires precise timing, careful application to avoid damaging native plants, and often multiple years of follow-up treatment. It's effective but slow, expensive, and impractical for large-scale infestations covering multiple acres.

Forestry mulching takes a different approach entirely. The HM418 mulching head on our CAT 275XE processes invasive plants from the stem tips all the way down through the root crown — the critical "growth node" zone where dormant buds wait to resprout. By mechanically destroying this zone and covering it with a thick layer of mulch, we achieve 80–90% first-year suppression without any chemical application. Maintenance follow-up in year 2–3 catches the 10–20% that attempts regrowth from root fragments.

Long-Term Management After Removal

Invasive species removal is not a one-and-done operation for properties with decades of seed bank accumulation. The mulch layer provides 1–2 seasons of effective suppression, but dormant seeds in the soil — honeysuckle seeds can remain viable for 5+ years — will germinate as the mulch decomposes and sunlight reaches the soil surface.

BrushBoss recommends a maintenance schedule tailored to the species present on your property. For honeysuckle-dominated sites, a light follow-up pass in year 2 or 3 catches emerging seedlings before they develop the deep root systems that make mature plants difficult to control. This maintenance pass takes a fraction of the time and cost of the initial clearing because you're processing 1–2 foot seedlings, not 15-foot thickets.

For properties adjacent to heavily invaded neighboring land, ongoing management is especially important. Bird-deposited seeds from neighboring honeysuckle and autumn olive will continually repopulate cleared areas along the boundary. Annual monitoring of these border zones — and spot treatment when new growth appears — keeps your cleared areas permanently clean without requiring full-scale re-clearing.

Many BrushBoss clients in Chardon, Newbury, and Burton have adopted a rotational maintenance program: initial clearing in year one, follow-up pass on half the property in year two, the other half in year three, and annual spot checks thereafter. This approach keeps costs manageable while maintaining long-term results across multi-acre properties.