The Invasive Plants Taking Over Maryland Properties (and How to Fight Back)

Walk the edge of almost any field or woodlot in Harford or Baltimore County and you'll find plants that don't belong here. Invasive species spread fast, crowd out native plants, smother trees and turn usable land into impassable thicket.

The usual suspects

• Multiflora rose: thorny, arching shrub that forms walls along field edges and fence lines.
• Autumn olive: fast-growing shrub with silvery leaves and red berries that birds spread everywhere.
• Oriental bittersweet: a vine that climbs and girdles trees, then pulls them down under its weight.
• Japanese honeysuckle and porcelain-berry: vines that blanket shrubs and young trees.
• Tree-of-heaven: a fast-growing tree that resprouts aggressively from its roots when cut. It's also a favorite host of the spotted lanternfly.
• Japanese barberry: spiny shrub that thrives in woodland understories.
• Mile-a-minute and Japanese stiltgrass: annuals that carpet openings and road edges.

Why cutting alone often fails

Many invasives resprout from roots or stumps. Cutting them once just gives you a thicker patch next year. Winning usually takes a combination of mechanical removal, repeated cutting at the right times, and follow-up treatment where appropriate. In Maryland, commercial herbicide application requires a licensed applicator.

A realistic plan

1. Knock it down. Forestry mulching or brush hogging clears the mass of growth and lets you see the land again.
2. Hit the regrowth. Follow-up cutting or treatment of resprouts in the next growing season.
3. Fill the space. Seed, plant or graze the opened ground so invasives don't simply move back in.
4. Maintain. Seasonal cutbacks keep fields and edges open for good.

Don't clear the good with the bad

Overgrown areas often hide young oaks, maples and other native trees worth keeping. Our ISA Certified Arborist-led planning separates the keepers from the invaders before the machines go to work.