Text and images by Alisa Wong
At Four Mile Run Park in Alexandria, the challenge is familiar to many habitat restoration practitioners: there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mature bush honeysuckle shrubs (Lonicera spp.), which are invasive Eurasian plants, many standing 5 to 7 feet tall. These plants are also a challenge for homeowners. With aggressive root systems, they can be difficult to remove in their entirety. They can out-compete and shade out native wildflowers, trees, and shrubs that local wildlife depend on. Their dense growth can reduce plant diversity, alter soil conditions, and degrade habitats for native animal species, ultimately disrupting the health of our regional ecosystems. Even when large shrubs are removed, new seedlings continue to emerge from the seed bank.
With an infestation of this scale, we knew herbicide alone was not the answer. If the City wanted to use herbicide, it would certainly kill the plant over time. But that would leave its seedlings to deal with, which would require high cost and high quantity of herbicide given the number of shrubs—many grown to the size of trees! We needed a management approach that volunteers could apply across large areas while minimizing chemical use.
Last year, we came across research from the University of Cincinnati describing a surprisingly simple technique. After cutting an invasive shrub to ground level, the stump is covered and smothered. The goal is to prevent the plant from resprouting by blocking sunlight and forcing it to exhaust its stored energy reserves. The idea appealed to us because it is inexpensive, accessible and volunteer-friendly, and avoids herbicide use. So, with the City’s permission, we decided to give it a try.
Since July 2025 when we began this work, 142 volunteers have helped cut honeysuckle stems flush with the soil and cover the stumps with heavy plastic secured by landscape staples. While it is still too early to draw firm conclusions on the efficacy of this technique, some of the shrubs treated last year have shown little or no regrowth this spring. At the same time, we found that many stumps resprouted, often because light reached the stump through gaps in the covering, tears in the plastic, or insufficient stapling to hold the plastic down.
Rather than relying on anecdotal observations, we decided to monitor the results. This summer, we established 10 permanent monitoring plots—five treatment plots where honeysuckle shrubs were cut and covered, and five untreated control plots. Each plot measures 2 by 2 meters and is marked by yellow rebar posts. We also recorded their GPS coordinates.
Over the coming 18 months, our volunteer monitoring team will measure honeysuckle regrowth and estimate both invasive and native plant cover within each plot. The question is not simply whether the honeysuckle comes back, but whether suppressing it creates opportunities for native plants to reclaim the space.
We’ll share what we learn as the project continues. Please contact Alisa Wong at alisa7620@gmail.com for more information about the project, or to sign up for an upcoming volunteer workday!
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Great! I’ve just been recutting stumps until I can pull the plant out by the roots but that can take many many years. I’m the mean time, they don’t fruit. Iv read that seeds only last two or theee years in the seed bank.
(From the author) I’m so glad that you found a strategy that works for you regarding the bush honeysuckle. I’ve found that when you cut it, they grow back very quickly and we have too many to do repeated cuttings and root removal. The cut and smother strategy is what we are trying to maximize our volunteer time and we hope it will be the most labor efficient way of killing the mature honeysuckle.
If Bush Honeysuckle were a native plant, people would love it as it feeds pollinators and birds and mammals. How can you justify creating areas with nothing to feed wildlife whereas once there was?
(Reply from the author)
Restoration requires balancing short-term disturbance with long-term ecological function. At Four Mile Run Park, we are not simply removing vegetation and leaving barren areas. We pair invasive removal with native trees, shrubs and forbs, and have also converted turf grass into native meadow habitat to increase food and habitat resources.
Although birds do eat bush honeysuckle berries, research has found the fruit to be relatively low in both lipids and protein, making it a comparatively poor energy source that can be particularly important to migrating birds. More importantly, dense bush honeysuckle suppresses native understory vegetation and tree regeneration and interferes with natural forest succession. That includes regeneration of ecologically important native trees which in turn provide critical high quality, ecologically coevolved food for birds and other wildlife, such as oaks.
The goal is to create a diverse native plant community that provides substantially greater ecological value.