Buckthorn invasion

Buckthorn with berries

Great article by Steve Brandt in today's StarTribune, entitled "Busting buckthorn - over and over again".

Seems first we need to educate people about the problem, which this article does.  Cities should provide a flier drop to all homes with buckthorn on their property which helps them to identify the shrub.  Additional identification support should be provided as needed.

Secondly, it would be helpful to mandate removal on private and public property. Otherwise, it will continue to spread via berries, etc. Volunteers can help with this, but it will most certainly require additional paid efforts.

Finally, it would be great if we could find a useful purpose for buckthorn once harvested, such as biofuel.  I've discovered it works well for picture frames (below). 

A friend from church gave me a flask of liqueur made from Sea Buckthorn berries.  A laxative is the only thing for which the buckthorn berries from our region would be good. 

Buckthorn picture frame