Au Revoir Autumn Olive

March 2025--A year ago we took out the first batch of autumn olive trees. Part 2 starts this week.

More than 100 of these sneaky shrubs (some look more like trees) have been tagged with yellow plastic ties. Like last year, Adan and crew will cut them down to size, swab the stumps with glyphosate, and pile up the brush for the chipper.

Yellow-tagged autumn olive.

Were that this was the last time we had to do this! But, no--we are merely removing what's left in the upper fields. Most of it follows the creek as it cuts across the farm diagonally from east to west. It will take at least one more campaign to eliminate it in the lower fields. And then we'll have to be on the lookout for new attempts at re-establishment.

Creekside autumn olive.

Removing invasive species is one of the two tenets guiding our mission on Two Owls Farm. The other is restoring the land and waters to increase biodiversity through scientifically informed land management.

Lately, we're leaning toward consciously managing for grassland bird habitat. It helps that we had a mating pair of kestrels last year in one of our two kestrel boxes. They produced 5 eggs that hatched (4 survived to fledge).

We're also early on in an experiment to establish within the upper fields five islets of native perennials. The thinking is that these plants will attract pollinator insects that are food sources for grassland birds. They will also provide cover to meadow voles, another critically important food source for the kestrels. We will devote another blog to this project. We could know as early as this spring whether the northern upland Piedmont seed mix we drilled last year will germinate.

But back to invasives--what now to do about the annoying and ubiquitous Japanese stilt grass?? It seems to be part and parcel of the autumn olive infested creek sides. I actually find it kind of relaxing to pull the stuff, but this year we're looking for a better way. We don't want to throw in the towel, as it not only steals light to fuel its fast tall growth, but its fallen thatch completely mats riparian areas that might otherwise bring us lovely spring ephemerals, ferns, and other shade-loving natives.

But that's a story for another day and another blog post. Stay tuned!