Japanese Barberry Removal in Michigan: The 2028 Rule, Regrowth and Cost

Michigan restricts Japanese barberry from 1 January 2028, and many owners already have a thicket of it under their oaks. The listing does not order removal of established plants. Clearing opens the ground, and the regrowth needs an ongoing control plan.

A barberry thicket comes out with a mulching pass, a return cut for the root sprouts the next growing season and, if you choose it, a licensed applicator’s treatment of the regrowth. Clearing it from under trees you keep costs $1,500 to $2,500 an acre in most cases.

What Michigan’s 2028 Listing Means for Barberry on Your Land

By an Invasive Species Order dated 20 May 2026, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development is adding Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) to the state’s restricted species list. From 1 January 2028 it will be unlawful to introduce, import, sell, possess with intent to distribute, or intentionally propagate it in Michigan.

Read the list of acts closely. Every one of them concerns bringing the plant in, trading it or growing more of it. Nothing in the notice tells a landowner to remove plants already growing in the woods. So the listing is a reason to stop barberry from spreading, and a sign of how seriously the state takes it, but it is not a removal order with a deadline.

It is already established in Michigan, in forests, pastures and old fields and along woodland edges, roadsides and disturbed areas.

How Japanese Barberry Spreads Into Michigan Woods

Recognize it first. Look for a spiny, deciduous shrub usually one to two feet tall that can reach six, with small oval leaves that have smooth edges and turn red in fall, a thorn at each node, pale yellow spring flowers and bright red, egg-shaped berries that hang on into winter. The inner bark and wood are yellow. Two look-alikes are worth knowing: American barberry has toothed leaves and is native south of Michigan, and common barberry, also toothed and taller, was eradicated from much of its range, Michigan included, because it hosts black stem rust of grain.

Birds and deer carry the seed. Most fruit drops right under the shrub, but deer and birds move some of it, and plants have turned up in undisturbed forest several kilometers from any source. Because the berries stay on the branches into late winter, they get eaten when other food runs out.

Nothing eats the plant. Thorns keep livestock and deer off it. It once spread readily through pastures because cattle avoided it, then moved from the pastures into the neighboring woods. Where deer are thick, the native shrubs they do browse lose ground and barberry fills the gap.

Shade does not stop it. It is extremely shade tolerant. It also leafs out early in spring and holds its leaves late into fall, so it gets weeks of light the natives miss.

It spreads sideways too. It reproduces from clonal shoots below ground and from branch tips that root where they touch the soil. A seedling can put on four feet in one good season.

Will Barberry Grow Back If Cut to the Ground?

Yes. Repeated cutting and mowing alone may limit its spread but will not control it, because it resprouts vigorously from the root crown after cutting or fire.

That is why one pass with any tool, whether a brush saw, a mower or a forestry mulcher, gives you a clean floor for a season and then a flush of new stems. The mulcher is still the right first step on a dense stand: it takes a waist-high tangle of thorns down to chips in a single pass, and fresh sprouts in an open understory are far easier to deal with than a decade of growth. Mowing is the first step of a two-part effort, with the resprouts treated later in the season.

That second step is where the plan splits. One route is cutting the sprouts again on a return visit. The other is herbicide on the regrowth, which is a licensed applicator’s work, not ours. Our crew does the mulching and the return cuts and can work to an applicator’s schedule.

There is good news in the seed. Germination falls off sharply after one year, so barberry does not build a large, long-lived seed bank the way some invasive shrubs do. Once the thicket and its berries are gone, the seedlings that follow are a short-term problem.

How Do You Clear Barberry and Manage the Regrowth?

1. Find it while it stands out. The best times to look are early spring and late fall, when barberry is in leaf and most natives are not. Walk the property then, mark the main thicket and the outlying bushes, and flag the oaks, pines and native shrubs you are keeping.
2. Pick the timing for the first pass. Control works best in spring and fall, while desirable natives are dormant. A spring pass has another advantage: the berries do not ripen until midsummer, so the thicket comes down before it seeds that year.
3. Mulch the thicket where it grows. Our crew grinds the barberry, the brush in it and any saplings you do not want into chips on site, stumps flush with the ground, working around every flagged tree. Nothing is piled or hauled.
4. Return for the sprouts. Expect regrowth from the root crowns the next growing season. A return visit cuts it while it is short, or an applicator treats it. Watch treated plants for at least a year.
5. Pull the stragglers. Barberry roots are shallow. Small plants pull out best when the soil is moist, removing the root crown and as much root as possible, with gloves against the spines.

Clearing barberry near the house and along paths first also has a health reason: dense stands give black-legged ticks habitat. Our Michigan underbrush removal cost guide covers ticks and how understory work is priced alongside buckthorn.

Barberry in the Lakeshore Dune Woods

Fruitland Township, Whitehall and Muskegon County. Barberry is an active problem in the dune and oak woods along this part of Lake Michigan. Barberry has reached the oak-hickory forest at Muskegon State Park and the forested dunes at P.J. Hoffmaster State Park.

Private lots nearby call for the same care. In Fruitland Township’s Inland Lakes District, which covers parcels on Duck Lake and White Lake, the township prefers selective trimming for a filtered view over clear-cutting within 100 feet of the water’s edge. That fits barberry work well: the shrub layer comes out, the trees stay. On mapped critical dunes, a use that significantly alters the dune needs a permit under Part 353 from the local government or the state. Our Fruitland Township land clearing page covers the towns from Montague and Whitehall to Twin Lake and Norton Shores, and the permit offices.

West Michigan, around Grand Rapids. Old farm ground there tends to carry autumn olive and buckthorn alongside barberry, and our guide to clearing reverted fields explains why those shrubs return after one pass. The Grand Rapids land clearing page lists the towns.

Elsewhere in Michigan. The plan is the same statewide. For permits near water, burning rules and statewide prices, see the Michigan land clearing cost guide.

What Barberry Clearing Costs per Acre

For barberry under trees you keep, budget $1,500 to $2,500 an acre, which is the barberry and understory row on our Fruitland Township pricing page; our Grand Rapids market prices its regrowth and understory row at the same band. Where saplings have grown up through the thicket, the job is forestry mulching at $1,500 to $4,000 an acre, and opening a whole parcel to a set finish can reach $4,500.

• Under oaks and pines you keep: $1,500 to $2,500 an acre. Stem density and the number of keeper trees set where an acre lands.
• A thicket full of saplings: $1,500 to $4,000 an acre, priced as forestry mulching.
• One patch beside a house or path: small jobs start at a minimum charge of about $1,500; it is not added on top of an acre rate.
• The return visit: quoted on its own line, so you can take it or skip it.
• Herbicide on the regrowth: not ours; a licensed applicator prices it.

What every visit includes: barberry, brush and stumps ground to mulch on site, stumps flush with the ground, and nothing hauled away. Full stump removal below grade and cutting and hauling a very large tree are discussed and priced in the quote. Grading and build pads are not part of our price; we leave the ground ready for a builder to grade.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Japanese barberry banned in Michigan?

From 1 January 2028 it is on the restricted list, which makes it unlawful to introduce, import, sell, possess with intent to distribute or intentionally propagate it. The notice does not order owners to remove plants already growing on their land.

Will barberry grow back if cut to the ground?

Yes. It resprouts from the root crown, so a single cut or mulching pass needs a follow-up: a return cut, or an applicator’s treatment of the regrowth.

When is the best time to clear barberry?

Spring or fall, while native plants are dormant. A spring pass comes before the berries ripen in midsummer, and barberry is easiest to spot in early spring and late fall.

How much does barberry removal cost in Michigan?

Under trees you keep, $1,500 to $2,500 an acre; a thicket full of saplings, $1,500 to $4,000. Small jobs start at a minimum charge of about $1,500, and the return visit is priced separately.

Get the Barberry Cleared on Your Michigan Land

Request a free quote and we’ll contact you to discuss your property, access and the clearing you need. The quote lists the first pass and follow-up visits separately. Barberry roots can keep resprouting after repeated cutting, so plan ongoing checks and, if root control is the goal, a licensed applicator’s treatment.

Before you call, the per-acre rates are on the Fruitland Township pricing page.