Wisconsin Bush Honeysuckle Removal: Rules, Visits, Cost

In 35 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, including every county across the north, Amur honeysuckle is a Prohibited invasive species, and the other three bush honeysuckles are Restricted in every county. Keeping a thicket cleared takes a mulching pass that grinds the shrubs where they stand, return cuts on the sprouts for several years, and, if you choose it, stump treatment by a licensed applicator. Clearing honeysuckle beneath trees you are keeping usually costs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre.

What NR 40 Says, County by County

Wisconsin’s invasive species rule, chapter NR 40 of the Administrative Code, names four bush honeysuckles: Amur (Lonicera maackii), Morrow’s (L. morrowii), Tatarian (L. tatarica) and Bell’s (L. x bella). Morrow’s, Tatarian and Bell’s are on the restricted list with no county limit, so they are Restricted statewide.

Amur honeysuckle is split. It is Restricted in 37 named counties, most of them in the southern half of the state: Dane, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago among them, along with La Crosse, Vernon and Monroe in the west. Everywhere else it is Prohibited. That takes in every county across the north of the state and others such as Marathon, Portage, Lincoln, Langlade, Pierce, St. Croix and Trempealeau.

The two categories ask different things of a landowner:

• Restricted. No one may transport, transfer or introduce the plant. Having it grow on your land is not on that list. Moving it for control or disposal needs no permit, provided no live plant or seed gets loose in transit.
• Prohibited. No one may transport, possess, transfer or introduce it. Transport for identification or disposal is allowed without a permit only if you report where it came from to the DNR within 30 days and nothing escapes. The rule also says an owner “is responsible for controlling the prohibited species that exists on the property,” though control is requested only where that is feasible and reasonable.

In a Prohibited county, then, a trailer of cut Amur honeysuckle hung with berries carries a reporting step with it. Grinding the shrubs into mulch where they grew keeps the brush on your land and off the road, which is one reason forestry mulching suits this work.

How to Spot It and How It Spreads

Tatarian honeysuckle grows as dense, multi-stemmed shrubs 6 to 12 feet tall with opposite, oval, untoothed leaves and fragrant tubular flowers in mid to late spring. Amur honeysuckle is a faster-growing shrub up to 15 feet tall. The marks that matter in the field:

• Leaves. Amur’s are dark green and come to “a long, sharp point.” The other bush honeysuckles have more oblong leaves with a dull end.
• Berries. Red to orange, in pairs or small clusters where the leaf meets the stem, each with many seeds.
• Bark. Shaggy, peeling gray-brown bark.
• Pith. Cut a stem and look inside. White pith means a native honeysuckle; brown, hollow pith means it is likely one of the invasive bush honeysuckles.

That pith test is the one to use before any clearing, because it protects native shrubs and works in winter, when there are no leaves to read.

Birds do the spreading. Birds readily spread the berries, so new shrubs come up wherever birds perch and feed: along fence lines, field edges, woodlot margins and yard borders. The plant moves into forest edges, open woods, fens, bogs, lakeshores, roadsides, pastures and old fields.

It takes the light first. Tatarian honeysuckle leafs out one to two weeks before native plants, and these shrubs alter habitat by decreasing light, depleting soil moisture and nutrients, and possibly releasing chemicals that hold back other plants. Morrow’s and Tatarian also cross to produce Bell’s honeysuckle, which is invasive as well.

Why Cutting Once Does Not Work

The root survives the cut. Shrubs cut in winter and not treated with herbicide can resprout vigorously. A thicket cut with a saw and left untreated answers with a crop of new stems.

A forestry mulcher has the same limit. It can take a whole stand down in a single visit and leave the stumps level with the soil, yet underground nothing has changed: the roots are as alive as they would be after a chainsaw. Prescribed burning kills seedlings and top-kills older plants, so those older plants still come back from the base. That is why Amur honeysuckle needs follow-up for several years.

Seed is the other half of the problem. Birds go on dropping berries carried from shrubs next door, so new seedlings turn up in a cleared woodlot for a while.

A Multi-Year Removal Plan

1. Check your county and your plants. Find out whether Amur honeysuckle is Restricted or Prohibited where you own, and run the pith test on a few stems.
2. Flag what stays. Mark the hardwoods you are keeping and any shrub with white pith. Each flag is a spot the machine works around.
3. Grind it where it stands. Our crew turns the honeysuckle, the saplings and their stumps into a chip layer, and none of the berry-laden brush goes on a trailer. On wet woods, frozen winter ground carries the machine without rutting, and winter suits honeysuckle work because most other plants are dormant.
4. Choose whether to treat the stumps. That is a licensed applicator’s call and work, done while the cuts are fresh; it works as long as snow does not cover the cut surface. Our part is the cutting and grinding.
5. Come back for the shoots. In the growing season after the clearing, our crew returns to cut the regrowth while it is low and before it can set berries.
6. Pull the seedlings. Hand-pulling works for seedlings and small plants, which is cheap once the big stems are gone.
7. Look again each year. A walk each spring and fall shows what came back and where the birds planted new shrubs.

Pro tip: Book the first sprout visit when you book the clearing. The first season of regrowth is where a cleared stand is most easily lost.

What Bush Honeysuckle Removal Costs in Wisconsin

Taking bush honeysuckle and brush out from beneath the trees you keep usually costs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre: the honeysuckle and understory band on our Weston pricing page. Our Ellsworth and La Crescent markets price their understory rows at the same band. A stand that has grown tall and shut, with thick stems throughout, is priced as forestry mulching instead, $1,500 to $4,000 an acre.

• Under trees you keep: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre, set by the stems per acre and the number of keepers.
• A closed thicket mulched to the soil: $1,500 to $4,000 an acre; wet or sloped ground sits higher.
• One hedge or a backyard patch: small jobs start at a minimum charge of about $1,500, billed in place of an acre rate, not as a fee on top.
• Sprout visits: each one priced separately, so you decide visit by visit.
• Stump treatment: quoted separately by a licensed applicator, not by us.

Every pass grinds stems, small trees and stumps into mulch where they grew, stumps flush with the ground and nothing hauled away. Full stump removal below grade, and cutting and hauling very large trees, are discussed and priced in the quote; grading is not part of our price. For what moves a quote around Wausau, from wet ground to river frontage, see the Weston forestry mulching cost guide.

Honeysuckle Around Weston, Ellsworth and La Crosse

Weston and Greater Wausau

Bush honeysuckle and buckthorn can close the shrub layer beneath a woodlot. Clearing opens the ground, but honeysuckle cut without treatment can resprout vigorously, so plan follow-up visits. On private land along the Eau Claire and Wisconsin rivers, mulching and repeat cutting handle both plants.

Amur honeysuckle is Prohibited in Marathon, Portage, Lincoln and Langlade counties. Our crew clears honeysuckle around Weston, Wausau, Rothschild, Kronenwetter, Merrill, Antigo and Stevens Point; see land clearing around Weston for the towns and the permit offices.

Pierce County and the Ellsworth area

Amur honeysuckle is Prohibited in Pierce and St. Croix counties as well. Where buckthorn shares the fence lines and woodlots, our Wisconsin buckthorn removal guide covers that shrub’s rules and visits; honeysuckle is cleared on the plan above. See land clearing around Ellsworth for Prescott, Elmwood, Plum City and the rest of the territory.

La Crosse County and the Coulee towns

Here the county line matters. Amur honeysuckle is one of the Restricted species in La Crosse, Vernon and Monroe counties, while next door in Trempealeau County it is Prohibited. La Crosse, Onalaska, Holmen, West Salem, Sparta and Viroqua are served from our La Crescent market across the Mississippi; see land clearing around La Crescent. On the Minnesota bank, all four bush honeysuckles are Restricted Noxious Weeds under Minnesota’s own rule, which our Minnesota bush honeysuckle removal guide explains.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to remove bush honeysuckle from my land?

For the Restricted honeysuckles, no rule requires it, though NR 40 encourages control where a plant is just arriving or threatens a high-priority resource. Where Amur honeysuckle is Prohibited, NR 40 makes the owner responsible for controlling it, though control is requested only where that is feasible and reasonable.

Is bush honeysuckle invasive in Wisconsin?

Yes. All four bush honeysuckles are regulated under NR 40: Morrow’s, Tatarian and Bell’s are Restricted statewide, and Amur is Restricted in 37 counties and Prohibited in the rest.

What should I do with the cut brush?

Mulching it on site avoids the question. Hauling Restricted honeysuckle for disposal is allowed if no seed escapes; hauling Prohibited Amur honeysuckle also needs a report to the DNR within 30 days.

Will one mulching pass get rid of it?

No. It clears every stem at once, and the roots answer with sprouts. Return cuts, and a licensed applicator’s stump treatment if you want one, finish the job over the following seasons.

Get Bush Honeysuckle Cleared From Your Wisconsin Land

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. Your quote spells out each stage, from the first grinding pass to the shoot cuts after it and a check on the regrowth a year on.

For costs, permits and seasons across the state, see the Wisconsin land clearing cost guide.