Buckthorn Removal in Iowa: The Law, the Plan and the Cost

Walk into an Iowa timber lot in early April and the buckthorn gives itself away. The oaks and hickories are still bare, but the layer beneath them is already green: a crowd of shrubs, shoulder to shoulder, thick enough that nothing else grows underneath. In late fall it happens again, with the buckthorn still in leaf after the native shrubs have dropped theirs.

Most owners who take it on start with a chainsaw or a brush saw, cut everything down in a weekend, and watch it come back thicker by the next summer. This guide covers what Iowa law says about buckthorn, how it spreads, why one cutting fails, a removal plan that holds, what clearing costs, and how Coralville and Johnson County have handled it on their own land.

Common or Glossy: What Iowa Law Says

Iowa treats buckthorn as a weed the landowner must deal with. Iowa Code 317.1A lists “Buckthorn (Rhamnus spp., not to include Frangula alnus, syn. Rhamnus frangula)” among the state’s primary noxious weeds, next to Canada thistle, leafy spurge and Palmer amaranth.

That wording matters. Common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) is in the genus the law names. Glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus, also known as Rhamnus frangula) is expressly left out, so glossy buckthorn is not a state noxious weed in Iowa. It is still invasive: Johnson County’s roadside program lists common and glossy buckthorn among the species it controls and discourages planting either on private land next to the roads. Multiflora rose, often growing in the same timber, is a secondary noxious weed unless your county board has voted it off.

Under Iowa Code chapter 317, each county board can order a weed control program each year and publish notice of it. If an owner does not destroy listed weeds as ordered, the weed commissioner can have it done and the cost is taxed against the land, with 25 percent added. Johnson County’s 2025 notice set June 1 as the deadline for destroying noxious weeds, so they do not set seed, and it covered farmland, CRP ground, land inside city limits and every other acre in the county.

How to Recognize It

Johnson County hosts a field brochure from the Hawkeye Cooperative Weed Management Area, a group of agencies working on invasive plants in Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn and Louisa counties. Its marks:

• Common buckthorn: a small tree or tall shrub with dark green, shiny, finely toothed leaves whose veins curve toward the tip. Twigs often end in a sharp spike. Fruit is black and pea sized, ripening in August and September and often hanging on into spring.
• Glossy buckthorn: untoothed leaves with hairy undersides and no spikes on the twigs. Its fruit ripens from red to dark purple from July through September.
• Both: gray-brown bark with pale flecks, and yellow sapwood with pink to orange heartwood if you cut a stem.

ISU Extension adds that common buckthorn prefers well drained soil while glossy buckthorn tolerates wet ground, in full sun or heavy shade. Iowa has native buckthorns too, smaller shrubs found mostly in wet ground, so if you are unsure, ask your county or an ISU Extension office before cutting.

How It Spreads

Birds carry the berries. The ISU Extension buckthorn profile describes “many dark berries that either drop to the ground and germinate or are eaten by birds and small mammals and spread across the landscape.” That is why buckthorn turns up along fence lines and under trees where birds perch.

Edges and openings first. The Hawkeye CWMA brochure says buckthorn spreads most easily to woodland edges and openings in the forest floor. A storm gap, a logging road or a pasture edge gives seedlings the light they need.

A longer season. Leafing out earlier and staying green later than native plants lets it shade out the shrubs and wildflowers beneath it.

Seed in the soil. The brochure warns that seeds stay viable in the soil for up to three years. Even a stand cut to the ground has a seed bank waiting under it.

Why One Cutting Fails

Cutting a buckthorn stem does not kill its roots. The root system has stored energy, and when the top comes off, the stump sends up a cluster of new sprouts. Cut once and walk away, and the stand comes back shorter but denser.

The Hawkeye CWMA guidance builds this into every step: after each treatment, mowing, cutting, burning or spraying, the next instruction is “check for re-sprouting.” ISU adds a timing point: removing plants before they fruit is the most effective way to stop the spread, because every fall that a thicket sets fruit adds to the seed bank. And once buckthorn has formed dense thickets, ISU says fire is generally not an effective control.

That is why any quote that promises buckthorn “removed” in one visit deserves a second question. One mulching pass opens the stand. It is the start of a plan, not the whole of it.

A Removal Plan That Holds

1. Flag what stays. Walk the timber and mark the oak, hickory, walnut and any native shrubs you want kept. Every keeper tree is a line the machine steers around.
2. The first pass. On acreage, a forestry mulcher cuts every stem in one pass and leaves the chips on the ground, with no brush pile to burn or haul. Winter and early spring, before leaf-out, are good months for it, while the ground is firm and the stand is easy to see through.
3. Follow-up cuts in year one. Sprouts come back from the stumps through spring and summer. A second visit in late spring and a third in late summer catch them while they are small and before they can fruit. On open ground our crew can return with the mulcher or a mower; in tight spots around keeper trees, owners often handle the sprouts with a trimmer.
4. Year two and three. Walk the ground each spring and cut what has come up from the seed bank, which the brochure says can stay viable for three years.
5. Herbicide, if you choose it. The Hawkeye CWMA brochure lists herbicide on cut stumps and other chemical treatments as control options. Cut Brush does mechanical work only and applies no herbicide; if you want a chemical follow-up, that is work for a licensed applicator you hire, timed around the cutting.

Pro tip: Put the follow-up visits on the calendar before the first pass, not after. The visits that matter most are the ones in the first summer, and they are the ones most often skipped.

What Buckthorn Removal Costs

Clearing buckthorn from under timber you keep typically runs $1,500 to $2,500 per acre, the buckthorn and honeysuckle band on our Coralville pricing page. A closed thicket with larger stems prices as forestry mulching, $1,500 to $4,000 per acre.

Job	Typical range	Notes
Buckthorn and brush under trees you keep	$1,500 – $2,500 per acre	The understory band
Dense thicket with larger stems	$1,500 – $4,000 per acre	The forestry mulching band
Small backyard stand	$1,500 minimum charge	Where small jobs start; access and density set the final quote
Follow-up passes for sprouts	Priced per visit	Listed in the quote as their own lines
Herbicide treatment	Separate trade	Quoted by a licensed applicator

Each pass grinds the stems and stumps into mulch on site, flush with the ground, with nothing hauled away. Full stump removal below grade is discussed and priced in the quote if you want it, and grading is not part of our price.

What moves a buckthorn job inside the band is the stem count, how many keeper trees the machine has to steer around, and how steep the ground is. The Coralville forestry mulching cost guide compares hourly and per-acre quotes and shows how to budget the follow-up visits, and the Iowa land clearing cost guide covers forest reserve timber, slopes and burning across the state.

Buckthorn Around Coralville and Johnson County

The best local example of this work is public. The City of Coralville’s Woodland Restoration Project began with a 2016 Healthy Forests grant, through which the Iowa DNR and the city had almost 157 acres of city wooded open space evaluated and mapped. Restoration was funded through the state’s Resource Enhancement and Protection program.

The city’s contractor removed honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, burning bush, wild barberry and buckthorn from the understory, using “a fecon head or brush hog attachment on a skid steer” along with chain saws and loppers. Stems were treated with dyed herbicide where needed, brush was chipped and spread or removed and never burned, and the contractor came back three times: January to March for the first cut, then May or June and August or September for regrowth. The sites included Auburn Hills, Stables Basin and Clear Creek west of Camp Cardinal Boulevard.

For a private owner in Coralville, Iowa City, Solon or North Liberty, that is the pattern to copy: a machine for the first pass, two follow-up visits in the first year, and no brush pile. Most timber around here sits on loess slopes above the Iowa River and its creeks, where mulching has one more advantage: the roots stay in the hillside and hold the soil.

Start at land clearing in Coralville and the Iowa City Corridor for the towns and local rules, or see what each method does on the Coralville services page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is buckthorn a noxious weed in Iowa?

Common buckthorn is. Iowa Code 317.1A lists buckthorn in the genus Rhamnus as a primary noxious weed and expressly excludes glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus), so glossy buckthorn is invasive but not on the state noxious weed list.

Will mulching kill buckthorn?

Not on its own. Mulching cuts every stem at once, but the roots sprout back. Two more cuts in the first year and a check each spring while the seed bank lasts are what clear a stand.

When is the best time to remove buckthorn?

Before it fruits, according to ISU Extension. A first pass in winter or early spring on firm ground, with follow-up cuts in late spring and late summer, keeps it from setting seed that year.

How much does buckthorn removal cost in Iowa?

Around Coralville, understory clearing runs $1,500 to $2,500 per acre and dense thickets $1,500 to $4,000, with a minimum charge of about $1,500 for small jobs. Follow-up visits are priced separately, and herbicide is a separate trade.

Get Buckthorn Out of Your Timber

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. Our crew plans buckthorn work in the order that works: flagged, cut, cut again, and checked the next year. Whether it is a thicket under the oaks above Clear Creek, a fence line in Washington County or a backyard edge in Marion, every season left alone means more berries and more seed in the soil.