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Oriental Bittersweet


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Hello all, I recently survived a forest site that has been overtaken by oriental bittersweet. I have never managed for this plant and am curious of what others have done for larger scale projects like this. The site goes along a river bank, in which some bittersweet is creeping down. My thought was controlling along the river first (as to stop the spread down river) and then move inland and/or to outlier spots. Any thoughts or directions you can point me in are appreciated. 

Thanks!

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We do a lot of praying!  Cut-stump works well, but with large populations, it's a lot to wade through, and will take multiple years.  The best effort I've ever been a part of actually used a bobcat with a forklift on to rip tons up, we walked through after and sprayed any stumps we saw.  95% kill in Year 1.  BUT it was in a field, not a river bank, and we had a bobcat literally onsite doing other work.  Not an option for most projects.

Also, don't pull down the vines--unnecessary work.  They'll fall down as they rot.

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Thanks for the thoughts Katie! I did consider using a bobcat. So they actually pulled it up? Not chopped it, like with a forestry mower?

My concern, be it by a river bank, is that if we kill back a majority of the vegetation in the area at one time, that the river bank will be susceptible to erosion; even if we come back and do plantings... 

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