If lessons learned the hard way are lessons well learned, two decades of experience should have taught me something about establishing a shrub forest. This article is offered in the hope of helping someone else learn from my experiences at West Virginia University’s Core Arboretum.

My efforts began in the early 1980's. The area under the 23 kv power line that runs down the hill through the heart of the Arboretum was a major eyesore, a dense, thorny tangle of misshapen trees and shrubs stitched together by grapevines, multiflora rose, and Japanese honeysuckle, The power company that owned the right-of-way (but not the land) would let this nightmarish forest grow for about ten years, then send crews in with chain saws to cut everything more substantial than grass.

The clearcutting disrupted nesting birds and other wildlife. Subsequent regrowth brought back the ugly tangle. The power company wanted to replace the chain saw crews with aerial spraying of herbicides.

None of these conditions seemed appropriate for the middle of an arboretum. Then I heard of work in Connecticut that showed it was possible to establish a semi-stable shrub forest in a surprisingly small number of years. After hesitating because of the steepness and aggressive grape vines of the Arboretum, conditions which I knew would make things difficult, I decided to give it a shot.

I decided I could make room on my calendar to selectively clear the right-of-way after completing the annual chore of hazard tree removal. Working in the dormant season of February and early March would help me see what I was doing, and there would be no yellowjackets.

The Plan. The idea was to clear the right-of-way selectively, leaving the native shrub and small tree species, ignoring the blackberry and raspberry canes, and removing the more arborescent species (those that would become large trees) and invasive exotics. I knew I would also have to cut grapevines, which are native but a hindrance to shrub forest management. A WVU faculty member recommended stump treatment with a certain herbicide to reduce sprouting of unwanted species.

I knew the first years would be tedious. I would have to look closely to identify shrub seedlings and sprouts by twig and bud traits. Invasive exotics suppressed include ailanthus, multiflora rose, shrubby honeysuckles, Japanese honeysuckle (vine), privets, barberries, and winged euonymus.

Twenty Years Later. It’s been a struggle. Maintenance is only now beginning to get easier, with some of the more established shrubs shading out most competing tree seedlings. Invasive exotics are mostly under control. Large gaps between shrubs remain, though, so the right-of-way is still far from a "semi- stable shrub forest." Some tree sprouts still grow vigorously in the gaps, more than half the right-of-way area.

One problem is that I have never found time to cover the entire area in a single season. Trees and tree sprouts have managed to become well established. Also, the herbicide used on freshly cut stumps proved only partially effective during the dormant season. Maples, grapes, and even slippery elm sometimes had enough sap pressure to rinse off the herbicide, which proved entirely ineffective against black locust in any season. Because of these disappointing results and the fact that pausing to find and treat stumps greatly slowed the clearing process, the herbicide was abandoned after using up the first gallon of concentrate.

On the plus side, progress has been made. The cycle of clearcut and regrowth has ended. Even at its worst, the right-of-way is now much more attractive (or less unattractive) than it used to be. Arborescent sprouts in areas that have received frequent attention are much less numerous and vigorous than they were in 1981. There has been no aerial spraying of herbicides.

Twenty species of native shrubs and small trees have become established. The most common ones are hawthorn, spicebush, staghorn sumac, nannyberry, black haw, silky cornel, arrowwood, American hazelnut, flowering dogwood, and redbud. Many individual plants have developed into attractive specimens, and dense thickets have developed in spots.

What I Should Have Done. I can’t undo the errors I’ve made, but I can make some suggestions for anyone who might consider a similar undertaking.

• Get more information up front. Instead of plunging into a major project based on hearsay about work in Connecticut, I should have aggressively tracked down published information about that work and paid close attention to its methodology and results.
• Choose the right herbicide. My herbicide recommendation came from a faculty member in Plant and Soil Sciences. I should have at least sought a second opinion from somebody in the Division of Forestry. If there is no herbicide that will both be effective and satisfy your environmental concerns, it’s best to use no herbicide at all.
• Plant desirable species. Some parts of the right-of-way are still understocked 20 years into the process. I should have augmented the natural stand with purchased stock. Tree tubes would have helped these plants become established and made them easy to spot during selective clearing.
• Use the right tools. I have used many tools over the years, including chain saws, weed-whackers, bank blades, mattocks, rock picks, lawn mowers, pruning saws, lopping shears, hand pruners, hand-held sprayers, backpack sprayers, drip bottles, and flagging tape. Most of these have been useful at times, but I no longer use weed-whackers or bank blades. I prefer the rock pick for uprooting invasive exotics such as barberries and shrubby honeysuckles. Lopping shears are best for selective clearing where desirable and undesirable species grow closely together. I sometimes use a lawn mower where the ground is not too steep, but only after carefully marking seedlings and small saplings of desirable species with flagging tape, to help me see and avoid mowing them.

• Learn to recognize the desirable species that grow in your area. When clearing, leave anything small you’re unsure about. If it keeps growing straight, fast, and up after passing ten feet in height, it’s probably inappropriate for a power line right-of-way.
• Don’t use a lawn mower or weed-whacker on the same ground in consecutive years unless the area is already fully stocked with shrubs. First year seedlings of desirable species are very hard to spot, so mowing is likely to set them back as much as the plants you’re trying to suppress. Also, raspberries and blackberries bear fruit on second year canes, so don’t mow if you want to harvest wild berries.
• Always work safely and carefully. You’re bound to cut a few desirable stems by mistake now and then. Try to minimize this, but don’t worry about it. Be more concerned about your own safety, especially when using power equipment.
• Never use any herbicide without first reading the label and following its personal and environmental safety suggestions. Be conservative if you use herbicides. Remember that heavy use can overwhelm the soil’s ability to break herbicides down into more benign substances. Keep herbicides well away from bodies of water. It’s entirely possible to establish a shrub forest without using any herbicides at all.
• Cutting sprouts back during the growing season reduces vigor more than cutting during the dormant season. If you can safely and repeatedly get at undesirable sprouts during the growing season, you can prevent root systems from getting enough energy (in the form of sugars produced by leaves) to carry on. It’s possible to kill root systems this way in just a few years, without using herbicides.

Converting a power line right-of-way to a shrub forest can be a long process. It doesn’t yield instant gratification. Patience and persistence are essential. In most years, I spend close to 100 hours working on the right-of-way. This is a lot of time, but it’s much less on an annual basis than I spend mowing a few acres of lawn, and the right-of-way gets a little more attractive each year.

I hope this hasn’t sounded too discouraging. Establishing a shrub forest can be very satisfying -- it’s just that the satisfaction can be a long time coming.