Imagine a piece of land that is one enormous thicket of buckthorn. There would be no diversity of plants, nowhere for songbirds to nest in the lower canopy, and only one type of fruit for small animals. This is what is happening to Glenmore Woods.
Buckthorn is an invasive, non-native shrub that was introduced to North America during the 1800’s. Buckthorn was planted as a popular hedge material. Even though buckthorn makes a nice full hedge in a yard, it also makes an impenetrable, messy thicket in parks, roadsides, forests, and your neighbor’s yard.
Each buckthorn fruit produces 2-4 seeds that remain viable for up to six years! Birds eat these buckthorn fruit and then deposit the seeds everywhere on the fly. Because buckthorn tolerates shade, full-sun, drought and bad soil, it thrives just about anywhere. As a result, buckthorn quickly moves from pruned, well-kept yards and invades other areas.
Buckthorn is detrimental to the health and future of forests, prairies, wetlands and parks. It reduces biodiversity, destroys wildlife habitat and out-competes other important native plants, completely changing the landscape. For these reasons, in 2001 the Illinois General Assembly pass legislation that declared both Common and Glossy Buckthorn RESTRICTED NOXIOUS WEEDS. "These prohibited plants present a real danger to everything from the beauty of a backyard garden to the native flora of our state," said Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Joel Brunsvold. "Exotics like buckthorn, kudzu and purple loosestrife spread rapidly, degrade natural communities, and can cause serious harm to threatened and endangered plants and wildlife."
Still, buckthorn is easily found throughout Lake County as well as in every county of Illinois.
So how can you help? Remove buckthorn from your own property before it takes over and destroys the rest of the landscape. Glenmore Woods has a removal program to help organize a Buckthorn Bust. We need to start removing buckthorn now, before the problem becomes worse. If you are interested in participating in a Buckthorn Bust for Glenmore Woods, please contact one of the Glenmore Woods board members. We are in the process of organizing a Buckthorn removal between the two ponds in late October.