Buckthorn Removal in Massachusetts: Plan, Rules and Cost

Late in a Massachusetts autumn, after the maples and oaks have gone bare, a band of shrubs along the field edge is still green. That is often buckthorn, and both kinds that grow here, glossy and common, are on the state’s Prohibited Plant List.

Clearing it so it stays clear takes three things: a mulching pass that takes the thicket down, return cuts for the root sprouts over the next seasons and, if you choose, a licensed applicator’s treatment. Taking buckthorn out from under trees you keep typically costs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre.

Glossy and Common Buckthorn in Massachusetts

Both are prohibited plants. Common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and glossy or European buckthorn (Frangula alnus) are both on the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List, banned from importation and propagation. Nurseries may no longer propagate either one, and no one may sell or trade them in the state. The list does not order owners to remove buckthorn already growing, and it does not set out a disposal rule, so the choice to clear is yours.

Both grow across the state. Glossy buckthorn and common buckthorn are recorded in 13 of Massachusetts’s 14 counties, glossy the more widespread of the two.

How to Tell Them Apart

Glossy buckthorn grows as a shrub or small tree of 15 to 20 feet, with oval, smooth, glossy leaves that have no teeth and 8 or 9 veins. Common buckthorn has finely toothed, egg-shaped leaves with 3 to 5 curved veins, and its branches end in sharp thorns about a quarter inch long. Both have reddish roots, which helps when pulling seedlings. Glossy buckthorn leaves stay green late into the fall after most trees have dropped theirs, which is the easiest time to see how far a stand reaches.

How Buckthorn Spreads

Birds plant it. Birds are important dispersers of glossy buckthorn seed. They eat the ripe black fruit and carry the seed away, which is how buckthorn turns up in hedgerows and woods where nobody planted it.

It fruits young and for months. Plants under 3 feet tall bear fruit, and so do the sprouts of cut plants in their first growing season. A single plant can carry flowers, green fruit, red fruit and ripe black fruit at once, any time from July to September.

Seed waits in the soil. Glossy buckthorn seed stays viable in the seed bank for at least 2 years, and seedlings are common after a buckthorn canopy is taken out, most likely from that stored seed.

It fills wet ground and dry. In New England it grows in bogs, fens, marshes, riverbanks, pond margins and old fields, and it also grows on drier sites. Both buckthorns form dense thickets that shade and displace native understory plants, shrubs and tree seedlings.

Why One Cutting Brings It Back

Cutting buckthorn removes the part you can see and leaves the part that matters. Glossy buckthorn sprouts prolifically from its roots and root crown after it is wounded or cut to the ground. What that means for control:

• Mowing alone rarely controls it, even three summers running.
• Repeated cutting alone will not clear a dense thicket.
• Cutting twice a season for 2 to 3 years leaves the stand thinner and shorter.
• A licensed applicator’s cut-stump treatment holds it for 2 to 3 years.

None of that argues against the mulcher. Grinding a thicket down is what opens the ground so the regrowth can be reached, and knee-high sprouts on open ground take a fraction of the effort an old thicket does. What it does argue for is booking the second and third visits before the first. Any herbicide is a licensed applicator’s work; our crew handles the mulching and the return cuts, timed to fit around it.

A Buckthorn Clearing Plan Over Two or Three Seasons

1. Walk it in late fall. When the native shrubs and most trees are bare and glossy buckthorn is still in leaf, mark every patch, including the scattered shrubs away from the main stand. Flag the trees and native shrubs you are keeping.
2. Take the thicket down with one mulching pass. Our crew runs the mulcher through the buckthorn, the brush tangled in it and any unwanted saplings, leaving chips on the ground and stumps level with it, and steers around every flagged tree.
3. Keep the berries on the property. Grinding the brush in place means no fruiting branches leave on a trailer to drop seed along the road. Limbs carrying berries should be bagged, or the work done when no berries are on the plant; mulching on site gets to the same place.
4. Return for the sprouts. New stems come up from the roots the next season, and a return visit takes them down before they harden. Cutting twice in a season for two or three years wears the stand down; a licensed applicator’s stump or sprout treatment is the other route.
5. Watch for seedlings. Seed already in the soil, plus whatever birds bring in, keeps producing seedlings for a few years. Small saplings pull out by hand, roots and all, if you catch them early.

Pro tip: Clear the hedgerows and field edges that touch your open ground first. Fruiting shrubs there sit closest to the ground you are trying to keep open.

What Buckthorn Clearing Costs per Acre

Buckthorn cut out from under trees you are keeping typically costs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre, the buckthorn and understory row on our North Adams pricing page; Palmer prices its understory row at the same band. A field or woods edge where saplings have grown up through the buckthorn prices in the forestry mulching band of $1,500 to $4,000 an acre, and clearing a whole parcel to a set finish can reach $4,500.

Buckthorn work	Cost	Notes
Buckthorn under maples, oaks and pines you keep	$1,500 – $2,500 per acre	A hedgerow counts as the part of an acre it occupies
Old field filled with buckthorn and saplings	$1,500 – $4,000 per acre	The forestry mulching band
A single hedgerow or a patch near the house	Minimum charge of about $1,500	Where small jobs start; billed at the minimum in place of an acre rate, never stacked on one
Return cuts for sprouts	Priced per trip	Each trip is its own line, yours to take or decline
Herbicide on stumps or sprouts	Quoted by the applicator	A licensed applicator’s work, not ours

Whatever the visit, buckthorn, brush, small trees and stumps become mulch on site, stumps finish flush with the ground and no load is hauled off. Full stump removal below grade and cutting and hauling very large trees are discussed and priced in the quote. Grading and build pads are outside our price: we clear to the ground so a builder can grade.

How dense the stems are, how many keeper trees the machine works around, slope, stone and the distance between patches set where a job lands in its band. The North Adams forestry mulching cost guide explains how valley fields and stony hill lots differ.

Buckthorn Around North Adams and Palmer

North Adams and the Northern Berkshires. Both buckthorns grow across Berkshire County and over the line in Bennington County, Vermont. Old valley hay fields and hedgerows along the Hoosic are typical ground for it. Work beside a brook, bank or wetland needs a notice of intent with the conservation commission under the Wetlands Protection Act before a machine moves. Our North Adams land clearing page covers the soils, the rules and the towns we serve in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York.

Palmer and the Pioneer Valley. Glossy buckthorn grows in Hampden County and is widespread in Hampshire County. In Palmer, the Quaboag, Ware and Swift rivers meet, and glossy buckthorn’s liking for riverbanks and wet margins puts many field edges there within the same conservation commission question. See land clearing around Palmer, and for the other prohibited shrub that fills Pioneer Valley fields, our autumn olive removal guide.

Elsewhere in Massachusetts. The method holds from Worcester County to the Cape. For burning rules, Chapter 61 and statewide prices, read the Massachusetts land clearing cost guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is buckthorn illegal in Massachusetts?

Both glossy and common buckthorn are on the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List, so selling, trading, buying and distributing them is prohibited. The list does not require owners to remove plants already growing.

Will buckthorn come back after it is cut?

Yes. It sprouts from the roots and root crown. Return cuts while the sprouts are small, or a licensed applicator’s treatment, are what keep it down.

When is the best time to find buckthorn?

Late fall. Glossy buckthorn holds green leaves after most trees and native shrubs are bare, so a stand is easy to see and map.

How much does buckthorn removal cost in Massachusetts?

Most buckthorn under keeper trees runs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre, and a field closed in with saplings $1,500 to $4,000. The minimum charge of about $1,500 is where small jobs start, and sprout trips are priced one by one.

Get Buckthorn Off Your Land

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. Your quote treats buckthorn as a job over several seasons, with the first mulching pass and each sprout trip priced separately.

More on rates: the North Adams pricing page.