Small-Scale Amur Honeysuckle Removal and Passive Restoration May Not Create Long-Term Success

Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), a woody shrub native to northeastern Asia, is a common invasive species in many urban, suburban, and rural environments in North America. Honeysuckle negatively impacts native plant communities, and prolonged removal efforts are required to slow its spread and prevent reestablishment. However, intensive management is not always feasible for homeowners and small landowners, so the potential for small-scale honeysuckle removal followed by a passive approach is highly desirable. To test the potential for small-scale honeysuckle removal to initiate observable native plant recruitment, we established a long-term, small-scale study within a well-established honeysuckle infestation located in a 12.1 ha suburban patch of oak-hickory forest in Shawnee County, Kansas. We annually cleared 10 plots of all honeysuckle and maintained 10 adjacent, uncleared plots for the duration of the study. Native plant numbers increased within 1 y in the removal plots, and this increase continued across years. However, the vast majority of individuals consisted of aggressive and early successional species, and no significant differences in the effective number of common or dominant native species were observed between 2017 and 2020. Our results suggest that small-scale suppression of honeysuckle in well-established honeysuckle populations will likely lead to recolonization by a small number of species that may remain dominant for several years. Therefore, in areas with well-established honeysuckle populations, small-scale management of honeysuckle growth will likely be insufficient to ensure that even a moderate sample of native species becomes established.