Autumn Olive Removal in Iowa: Fence Rows and Pasture

Clearing autumn olive from an Iowa fence row or pasture edge takes a mulching pass that grinds the shrubs where they stand, then return visits over the next seasons for the sprouts and seedlings that follow, with stump treatment by a licensed applicator if you want it. On a fence row, a pasture margin or under trees you are keeping, the work typically runs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre.

It is easiest to find in spring. Autumn olive leafs out before the native shrubs do, so a row of it is green while the brush around it is still bare, and the undersides of its leaves are silver.

What Autumn Olive Is, and How to Tell It Apart

Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) is a non-native woody shrub. It came from China, Korea and Japan as an ornamental and was planted to reclaim mine land and for wildlife habitat, and it now spreads on its own across open ground.

How to recognize it:

• Size: a bushy shrub that can grow up to 20 feet tall.
• Leaves: oblong, about an inch wide, with smooth, wavy edges; dark green to grayish green above, dotted silver and white underneath, set alternately on the stem.
• Stems and bark: a silver tint and thorns on the stems; on older shrubs the bark splits and cracks, starting at the base.
• Flowers: tiny, fragrant, silvery yellow tubes about half an inch long, in May.
• Fruit: silver at first and red when ripe, growing in clusters.

Autumn Olive or Russian Olive?

Russian olive is easy to mix up with it: both have slightly thorny stems and small yellowish flowers. The differences are in the fruit and the leaves. Russian olive can reach 35 feet, carries its fruit singly and green to yellow, and its mature leaves are silver on both sides. Autumn olive’s fruit clusters and turns from silver to red, and only the undersides of its leaves are silver.

Is It a Noxious Weed in Iowa?

No. Iowa Code 317.1A names the state’s primary and secondary noxious weeds, and autumn olive is not among them. The law does name two plants that often grow in the same rows: buckthorn, a primary noxious weed, and multiflora rose, a secondary one, and the county weed rules reach those. Whether to clear the autumn olive is up to you.

How It Fills Pasture and Fence Rows

Wildlife plants it. One shrub can produce up to six pounds of fruit a year, and wildlife spreads it quickly. Birds drop the seed where they perch, and a fence wire is a perch that runs the whole length of a field.

It fruits young. After three years of growth a shrub can flower and set fruit, so a row gets ahead of a landowner faster than most brush.

It likes open ground. It takes over open and semi-open ground, adapts to a variety of soils and resists drought. Pasture, field margins and the sunny edge of a timber stand all fit that description.

It takes the light and the ground. Leafing out early and growing into dense shrubs, it keeps light from the plants beneath.

What a Single Cutting Leaves Behind

Cutting autumn olive at the ground takes the top and leaves the root that grew it. That is why the surest method never stops at the cut: the stump is treated within 15 minutes, especially from July through September, and first-year seedlings are pulled every spring after that, because seed from earlier fruit crops keeps coming up.

A one-time job comes undone in other ways too:

• Fire is no shortcut. Autumn olive resprouts vigorously after a fire, so burning an established stand only resets it.
• Mowing only trims it. A rotary mower takes the tops and leaves the same living root a saw does, so the row never actually opens up.
• Neighboring rows keep seeding yours. Fruit from a row across the fence or along the road keeps reaching ground you have just cleared.

Public land shows what holding the ground takes. At Rock Creek Wildlife Area, just north of Rock Creek State Park in Jasper County, honeysuckle and autumn olive spread thickly across hills that were most likely once pasture, and keeping them back takes constant work.

A Clearing Plan for Fence Rows and Pasture

1. Look in spring. Autumn olive leafs out ahead of the native shrubs, so April and early May show how far it reaches. Tie flagging on every tree, post or native shrub that stays.
2. Agree on the line. Many fence rows are also property lines. Settle with your neighbor where the work stops before the machine arrives.
3. Make the first pass. The mulcher grinds the shrubs and saplings in place, leaves the stumps flush and spreads the chips on the ground, so there is no brush pile. If you want stump treatment, schedule the cut for July to September and have a licensed applicator work right behind the machine. We do not apply herbicide.
4. Pull seedlings the next spring. Pull first-year seedlings while the soil is moist, root and all. On a long row, a return visit with the machine handles what hand pulling cannot.
5. Come back the next growing season. Sprouts from the old crowns and new seedlings are cut while they are small, which is lighter work than the first pass.
6. Check once a year after that. Walk the row each spring for a few years. A morning of pulling seedlings costs far less than clearing the row a second time.

Autumn Olive Clearing Prices

Clearing autumn olive and brush off a fence row, a pasture edge or from under trees you keep typically runs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre, the Autumn Olive & Fence Row Clearing row on our Pella pricing page; every Iowa market prices its understory row in the same band. An old row grown through with small trees moves into the forestry mulching band of $1,500 to $4,000 an acre.

• A young row or pasture margin: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre.
• An old stand with saplings, mulched to the ground: $1,500 to $4,000 an acre, toward the top on a slope.
• A short row or a patch near the house: the minimum charge of about $1,500, where small jobs start, billed in place of an acre rate and never added to one.
• Sprout and seedling visits: each one quoted by itself, as a separate line you can accept or decline.
• Stump treatment: not our work; a licensed applicator you hire prices it.

Whatever the visit, the finish is the same: shrubs, small trees and stumps mulched where they stood, stumps flush with the soil, nothing hauled off. Full stump removal below grade, or cutting and hauling very large trees, is discussed and priced in the quote, and grading is not part of our price, since we clear to the ground for your builder.

A fence row is easier to price once it is measured in acres, and the Pella forestry mulching cost guide shows how to convert length and width. For other clearing across the state, see the Iowa land clearing cost guide.

Autumn Olive Around Iowa’s Markets

Pella and South-Central Iowa

Rock Creek Wildlife Area sits in Jasper County, one of the six counties our Pella market covers. Around Pella and Knoxville the work is mostly fence rows between fields, pasture going back to brush and the edges of timber on the bluffs and bottoms around Lake Red Rock, where low ground can stay wet after high water. Outside the cities, Marion County Zoning covers the unincorporated land. Our Pella land clearing page lists the towns, from Oskaloosa and Newton to Grinnell and Albia.

Perry and Central Iowa

Around Perry, the shrub that fills the North Raccoon River timber is bush honeysuckle, and our bush honeysuckle removal guide for Perry covers its timing and visits. Where autumn olive grows on the same fence rows, as the two did together at Rock Creek, the plan above applies to it. The Perry land clearing page covers Dallas, Boone, Greene, Polk and Story counties.

Coralville and the Iowa City Corridor

Autumn olive grows across eastern Iowa, including much of the ground our Coralville market serves. Buckthorn grows in that country too, and unlike autumn olive it is a listed noxious weed; our Iowa buckthorn removal guide covers it and the county weed rules, and the Coralville land clearing page lists the towns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is autumn olive a noxious weed in Iowa?

No. Iowa Code 317.1A does not name it. Buckthorn and multiflora rose are on that list, so check for them in the same row.

Is the shrub on my fence row autumn olive or Russian olive?

Check the leaves and fruit. Autumn olive leaves are silver only underneath, and its fruit hangs in clusters, silver turning red. Russian olive leaves are silver on both sides, its fruit grows singly and is green to yellow, and the plant can reach 35 feet.

Does brush hogging the row every year keep it down?

It keeps the tops short, not the plant gone. The root survives every mowing. Mulching the stand and cutting the sprouts on return visits is what reopens the row.

How much does it cost to clear autumn olive from a fence row?

Typically $1,500 to $2,500 an acre for a fence row or pasture edge, and $1,500 to $4,000 for an old stand with saplings in it. A short row starts at the minimum charge of about $1,500, and every return visit is priced on its own.

Start on the Autumn Olive Before It Fruits Again

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. Our crew works autumn olive in order: flag the keepers, mulch the row, come back for the sprouts and look again the next spring. Every season a row is left standing adds another crop of fruit for the birds to carry.

Read more: what each method does on our Pella services page.