Anoka County 4-H Buckthorn Busters Head to State Competition

EAST BETHEL, Minn. -- A group of students is looking to rid the state of a major problem.

"We're working on Buckthorn, which is an invasive species here in Minnesota. Our Buckthorn here at our house is right down here. We have two stumps and we are taking animal fat from our meals and spreading it straight on top of the stump once a week and we've done that for 30 weeks,” says Team Member AnnElise Brostrom.

The animal fat acts as a herbicide and so far, their experiment seems to be working.
"Of the ten, all of these except the one over there have been proven that nothing is growing off of them,” says AnnElise.

The mission of the 4-H team is to find a chemical-free and family-friendly way to kill Buckthorn, because left untreated, it can create a big dent in Minnesota's agricultural landscape.

"Here is one of our controlled stumps and all we did is cut it and leave it to grow back on its own and its grown new suckers off the stump itself,” Team Member Caleb Brostrom says.

"Buckthorn is a big problem in Minnesota because it hosts soybean aphids which are a pest to soybeans and farmers. It also hosts corn rust fungus, which is on there for a few stages of its life, but not enough to kill the Buckthorn, but it does kill farmers' crops, costing them time and money,” says Team Member Madison Arndt.
The Buckthorn Busters will compete against 18 other 4-H teams later this month, where they will present their findings.

"This is the one that we use to demonstrate gurdling, and what it looks like when you cut it. Here's our fat and how we demonstrate our herbicide and our black baggies or burlap bags and this one is an identification tree,” Caleb says.

The team has researched existing Buckthorn in their community and hope to use their method to help residents remove the invasive species from their properties.
The 4-H Science of Agriculture Challenge will be held at the U of M on June 21-23. The top three teams will be awarded scholarships.

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