Planting After Honeysuckle Removal?

[Treeflea24]

I have several acres of land that are full of bush honeysuckle (Ive also heard it called Amur honeysuckle).
I have an FMP and also a contract with USDA to remove and kill the honeysuckle.
The spots that I am clearing lately are ribbons of dense, mostly mature plants, along areas that once were field edges about 20 years ago. In areas like this Ive found it easiest to uproot the whole tree, cut and treat stumps where necessary, pile them up, and foliar spray some of the remaining little plants.
Once I am done with an area I am left with a long, ~30-40' wide stripe that has practically zero ground cover (was 100% honeysuckle), with mature trees (black walnut, honey locust, black cherry, hackberry) on one side, and young, ~20 yo trees (same mix, heavy on the locust) on the other side. The mature trees are arching out over the area that used to be honeysuckle, and Id estimate the light levels to be somewhere between 20-60%, and decreasing each year. The ground is pretty stirred up and loose once Im done. This is upland well drained sandy-loam soil.

The FMP & USDA contract doesnt prescribe any replanting in these areas, just eradicating the honeysuckle. It seems like a good opportunity to seed the stirred up area with something that is desirable (benefits wildlife) and that may help to keep the future honeysuckle out. Or maybe to plant young trees in, if they are able to handle the lower light levels.

Im curious what other folks have done after removing large swaths of honeysuckle or other invasives, and if you have any recommendations for seed mixes, or tree species to fill this semi-shaded vacuum that I've created.

[Otis1]

I have a client I'm working with in a similar situation, except it's Japanese barberry probably the densest infestation I've ever seen. We are in the planning process right now with the NRCS(USDA). 

I wood count on doing foliar applications or some treatment almost every year for awhile(as needed) when the new growth is small. Invasive plants are an almost constant battle once they're well established. As far as planting in your situation I wood look for native shrub species that are shade tolerant (native bush or american fly honeysuckle, leatherwood) not sure if those are native to Ohio. Or plant tree species that are shade tolerant when young. Sugar maple, red maple, white pine maybe. Then cut some overstory trees in the future to give your planted trees some light.

If you want to keep these areas open, turn it into wildlife food plots. 

[newoodguy78]

Might be worth trying buckwheat planted heavy. If it takes would come up fast enough to get ahead of everything. It's a great soil builder and pollinators love it. 
Don't know exactly how shade tolerant it is however it does quite well on some shaded field edges I've planted 

[Southside]

X2 on the Buckwheat.  You are going to have a massive seed bank to deal with there.  If you don't want it comming back or turning into a jungle of nothing then I would plan on a few cycles of aggressive annuals, both spring and fall to get ahead of what's coming.  Buckwheat in the spring, millett in the summer, and say rye in the fall.  The shade won't be as bad of an issue in the fall / early spring and will let your prefered crop establish while you decide which way you ultimately want to go.  

[Otis1]

Great suggestions, I'm not nearly as familiar as I should be with annuals. 

Not trying to hijack the OPs thread but also didn't want to make a new one along the same topic. Dense invasive plant infestations require a lot of work over time and trying to see if anyone has come up with a good treatment schedule. 

What would you guys do in the following scenario? 30 acres of bottomland hardwoods; ash, box elder, cottonwood, bur oak, basswood. About 50-60% ash & box elder. In a small river floodplain that runs into Lake Michigan, so frequently flooded in the spring. No signs of EAB so far, which is surprising given the location. Nearly 100% Japanese barberry understory.

I'm not a big fan of using chemicals, but I think sometimes it has to be done. The smaller quantities the better.

So far my plan;
1.mow, mulch, hand cut barberry, get rid of it
2.chemically treat new growth following year and probably more
3.Shelterwood type harvest to remove ash and box elder, save oak and other desirable species. 
4. site prep for planting? Burning wood be nice but highly unlikely
5. plant bottomland hardwoods; silver maple, bur oak, etc.
6. continue invasive treatment as necessary

Of course, all of this also depends on the landowners willingness to put the work into it.

[Southside]

Can you get an offset disc in there?  Run behind a skidder or dozer if necessary.  This is a patch I finished up a week or so ago.  Cut off the timber, let it sit, blackberries took over - 6' tall - so I turned a herd of cattle into there to clean up what they could.  Brush hogged it, never stumped it, just ran my off set disc in there.  Followed up with a finishing disc and planted it because I wanted it smooth and in grass.  To get started I planted all annuals.  A good offset disc will uproot everything, even surprising sized stumps.  

[Ianab]

1.mow, mulch, hand cut barberry, get rid of it 2.chemically treat new growth following year and probably mor

I'd add in painting as many fresh cut stumps with appropriate weed killer. That plant looks pretty close to the European barberry we have here, and that stuff is tough. If you can knock back some of the bigger bushes with stump painting, that will be less chemicals for the next spring. 

It's going to be an ongoing mission as the ground will be full of seeds and every little seedling is going to sprout again. But if you don't start, they will just keep growing. 

[SwampDonkey]

Must be an invasive, and pretty shade tolerant. Up here in full canopy the wild honeysuckles are dead or rare. My woods has some prime honeysuckle ground, the bush honeysuckle here would take over like raspberries in open sky or partial shade. With lots of shade, the ground veg is sterile dead. :D

Partial shade along an old grown in road.





In under canopy, pretty much lifeless :D

[Treeflea24]

Thanks all.
I will probably try a little bit of each of what has been suggested.
Some maple and other shade tolerant trees & shrubs where there are enough gaps in the canopy - maybe I'll dress it up with some redbud and dogwood this spring...
Buckwheat looks to be sort-of shade tolerant, I'll give that and some other annuals a go and see how it does.
Probably a food-plot-type seed mix for the rest, clovers, perennial wildryes, etc.
Follow-up spot-spraying as necessary.

I do not have a disc set (yet), that will probably be my next implement to buy, for cases like these - I'm probably at only 15-20% complete on the honeysuckle work. I dont think cattle are in my future either, but thats a pretty cool biological tool to apply! maybe I could arrange for a couple goats...

Otis - Im the same as you in that Im not a huge fan of chemicals, and when I use them I try to keep it to a minimum. A agree with Ianab though on treating the stumps. It seems like the most surgical, targeted way to use an herbicide, its only going exactly where you applied it (no run-off or overspray), and in my limited experience it has been 100% effective - Ive never had a plant come back from it (honeysuckle, autumn olive, grape vines, honey locust, never tried barberry though...). I use glyphosate at 25-40% concentration.

SD - im jealous of the floor and sight lines in your photo, im hoping to get to that point some day.

[SwampDonkey]

I've got some areas a lot darker with fir. It's all like walking in park on 60 acres. I've been opening it up for some new growth, esp hardwoods. One acre at a time. :D

[aigheadish]

This is an interesting thread. 

Coming in from Dayton, Ohio we have/had a yard overrun by honeysuckle and we've (my wife) removed a fair amount of it. All the junk seen around the trees in the 1st picture below was honeysuckle and to the point that when we first moved in, even though the yard is only about 200 feet wide, you could get kind of lost or disoriented while mowing. 

We did a lot of cutting it back and pulling it from the roots, as possible, with the mower, but it was a months long project. Now, we just have loads of it on the property lines, that gets cut back when we see a tree in there that we like or if I'm on the backhoe and bored. The 2nd picture is recent and though from a different angle you can see a lot of the same trees (the leftmost trees are the same as 2nd group of trees straight out from that dude's head, behind the little apple tree that isn't there anymore) that no longer have all that honeysuckle. Unfortunately, the trees in these pictures aren't as pretty as in late spring and summer, these are from mid-spring and just a few days ago (when that big tree got blown down).

While I don't plan to plant around the bases of these trees it would be nice to have some plan for the property lines. We were already thinking of planting some buckwheat in our hay field back in the back back yard, as we have about 8-10 beehives on the property, using it for the edges would be nice too. I'd also love to convert that hay field (about 2 acres) into a orchard of sorts, for the bees, wildlife, and beauty. We don't have any sugar maple nearby that I'm aware of but it'd be nice to be able to do some sugaring one day (presumably in 20-30 years if I plant some today! Will I still be alive?) maybe apple, pear or who knows. I've recently heard about Paulownia and it looks beautiful but I don't know if it's considered invasive in my neck of the woods or not.