The tree of heaven is a nightmare. I am obsessed with the trees! Everytime I see one I want to cut it down. I hate seeing them along rt. 78. My husband now is obsessed with them and says they are even growing in NYC - where he works. My father hates them also so we diligently cut every female tree down as soon as possible but they seed so rapidly you can't keep up. Our neighbors don't cut theirs down so they end up seeding our property. My husband thought that since it's such a hard tree to cut down (seeminly like a dense hardwood) he would dry it and burn it for firewood. It was worthless. It's a totally useless tree - it stinks when you cut it or pull a seedling out of the ground and sucks up all the water out of the ground - stealing it from other plants! About the Japanese stilt grass. It's a nightmare to control. We just can't keep it under control at all and hope that the sheep we are going to get will eat it. It chokes out all of our redwood oak seedlings we plant for our reforestation activity. I'm wondering if crown vetch will choke it out or if the stilt grass with choke out the c.v. We used to have multiflora rose growing in abundant but we finally got rid of them. Thanks for letting me vent! :) Any help you can offer with control ideas - please pass on. thx.

I've been battling the 2 invasive species of Buckthorn for several years - - Frangula alnus, Glossy or European Buckthorn, aka Rhamnus frangula - Rhamnus cathartica, Common Buckthorn Both grow in a multi-stemmed shrubby habit, but Common Buckthorn has a tendency to grow in a more tree-like form. Common Buckthorn is dioecious, so only the female plants make berries. Seedlings are relatively easy to pull, but don't even bother trying to dig out med-large plants - the roots are embedded like concrete. Even the weed wrench is challenging with anything over 1 inch diameter. I cut the stems close to the base and use a squeeze bottle with a concentrated herbicide (Glyphosate, Triclpyr, or 2-4-d). Apply herbicide immediately after cutting. If it is a large stem (2-4") is only necessary to apply herbicide in the outer edge of the cut trunk. The plants do not have to be cut down, they can be left in place to die using other methods of applying herbicide. Cut bark treatment - where the bark and cambium are girdled or cut downward in a "cup" pattern all around the stem and herbicide is applied in the cup. Also basal bark application involves spraying oil-based herbicide over the lower couple feet of stems. I've tried to eliminate the larger plants first, to prevent additional generations of seeds from being dispersed by birds. Don't have a good pic of Common Buckthorn, but here's one of Frangula alnus, Glossy Buckthorn -

Daucus carota ~ Wild Carrot Dactylis glomerata ~ orchard-grass Datura ssp. ~ thorn-apple Datura stramonium ~ jimsonweed Daucus carota ~ wild carrot Descurainia incana ~ Richardson tansy-mustard Descurainia sophia ~ flixweed Dichrostachys cinerea ~ marabu Digitaria abyssinica ~ bottomless crabgrass Digitaria ischaemum ~ smooth crabgrass Digitaria sanguinalis ~ large crabgrass Digitaria velutina ~ velvety crabgrass Dioscorea alata ~ white yam Dioscorea bulbifera ~ air potato Dipsacus fullonum ~ common teasel Dracocephalum parviflorum ~ American dragonhead Drymeria arenarioides ~ sandy drymeria

Well, this is specific to the province of Manitoba, but it is, at face value, concerning. It seems, and this is just an initial reaction, that the framework around which such laws have been created is one that holds only ranching and farming as valuable uses of land in the province. This would, it seems, be an extremely pinched view of things. No native species should ever end up on a noxious weeds list. If this is as it seems, the folks making these rules are very, very far behind the curve. +oM