HOUGHTON — Glossy buckthorn, one of the Keweenaw’s most aggressive invasive species, is currently taking over portions of our favorite local trail networks. Luckily, Keweenaw Invasive Species Management Area (KISMA), and the Swedetown Trails Club are partnering with local volunteers and working to stop the spread of invasive buckthorn this summer.

The botanically inclined may recognize glossy buckthorn as the rapidly growing, shrubby tree that is trying to take over local trail networks such as the Swedetown Recreation Area in Calumet. However, many recreationists don’t even notice the buckthorn as they ride, ski and hike through these trails. We think it’s time to pay attention to the health of the woods around us.

You see, glossy buckthorn is highly invasive in our northern forests, especially in wooded areas that have soggy soils, lots of human traffic, and a history of land disturbance. These European shrubs cause a myriad of ecological problems. Spreading rapidly, they suppress the growth of our native shrubs that are important food sources for nesting birds. While buckthorn makes loads of berries, they lack the important protein and fats that our fruit eating birds require, and these shrubs don’t support native caterpillars for our carnivorous birds to eat either.

To make matters worse, these thick understories of buckthorn can completely smother forest regeneration. A forest with an aging canopy and an invaded understory, slowly loses its mature trees without the recruitment of new ones to take their place. What’s left in the end is a short, shrubby forest, almost entirely composed of invasive buckthorn. This is why a hike through pockets of forest invaded by buckthorn lacks the diversity and beauty of our native forests, and more importantly, these are wounded ecosystems that need our help to heal.

To address these problems, the Swedetown Trails Club (STC) is partnering with KISMA, and local outdoor enthusiasts, to help remove buckthorn and restore the forest. As part of our new volunteer-based management program “Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities,” STC and KISMA are hosting weekly volunteer days at the Swedetown Trails. Starting in June, these family friendly and educational events will be held every Friday from 1 to 3:30pm, and we’d love to see you there. We will need all the help we can get, cutting, pulling, snipping buckthorn, and hauling them out of the woods and into our trailer to be burned! Learn about this important restoration and conservation work while getting hands-on experience managing invasive species. This is a great way to give back to your local community, and the earth as well. We hope to see you there!

“Healthy Forests Healthy Communities” events:

Every Friday

1-3:30 pm

June 6 – August 15

Meet at the Swedetown Trails chalet

Family friendly and educational

Tools and equipment provided

Additionally, STC and KISMA, with help from Regenerative Ruminants, are bringing back our goat browse management project for a third year! Over the past two years, we have been using goats to perform experimental browse control on heavily invaded portions of the trail system. Our crew carefully monitors browse levels and collects vegetation data to study the effectiveness of goat grazing as a form of buckthorn bio-control. This will be the third and final year of this US Forest Service funded, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant project. We will host a family friendly “Greet the Goats” day from 10 a.m. to noon, July 12, at the Swedetown Trails. Come see the goats in action, and talk to KISMA crew members to learn more about grazing as a management strategy for controlling invasive shrubs.